The rare adjective finifugal describes someone “averse to endings” or “wishing something could go on forever,” whether it’s a book, a beloved TV series, a podcast, or anything else you don’t want to end. It comes from Latin finis, “end,” and fuga...
Paul in Batavia, New York, recommends The Door-to-Door Bookstore (Bookshop|Amazon), a novel by Carston Henn, translated from German by Melody Shaw, which includes a wonderful description of a book with a perfect final paragraph that you nevertheless...
When Martha agreed to serve as pronouncer for the San Diego County Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, she assumed her task would be easy. Instead, it was one of the most humbling experiences of her life. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Carrie Ann and her cousin Danielle from Minneapolis, Minnesota, wonder about the pronunciation of the word rhetoric. Is the stress on the first syllable or the second? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Is Rhetoric Pronunciation...
So many books and so little time—it’s a challenge to choose what to read next! It helps to remember that so-called “reading mortality” is a fact of life—you’ll never get to them all, but you can curate your own to-read list that speaks to you. Plus...
How could you stop reading after a novel that begins like this? I had this story from one who had no business to tell me, or to any other. That’s the first line of Tarzan of the Apes (Bookshop|Amazon) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is part of a...