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Welcome to the weekend. This weeks hand picked articles include a story about JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth love story, Beren and Lúthien. Did you know that Tolkien related his courtship and marriage of Edith (his wife) to a story he wrote of an immortal elven maiden, Luthien, sacrificing her immortality in order to marry a mortal man, Beren. This story was eventually published as part of The Silmarillion. Tolkien self-consciously equated Luthien with Edith and himself with Beren based on a walk they took in a wood some time later when Tolkien was recuperating during World War I. He even had “Luthien” inscribed on Edith’s tombstone and “Beren” carved into his own.
Mark Horne, J.R.R. Tolkien (Christian Encounters Series), pg. 45

Grab your favourite beverage, perhaps a beer brewed at the Green Dragon and enjoy your weekend reading.




JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth Love Story To Be Published Next Year | The Guardian

Beren and Lúthien, a story of the perilous romance between a man and an elf, is one of a number of texts by the author brought ‘together for the first time’ JRR Tolkien’s legend of the mortal man Beren and the immortal elf Lúthien – a story that meant so much to the Lord of the Rings author that the characters’ names are engraved on the headstone shared by him and his wife – is to be published next year.


The Problem of Reinventing the Bookstore | The Digital Reader

Bookshops are the platypus of the retail world. Not only are they part of an industry with a unique obsession with and attachment to its products, but they are also one of the types of retailers which are the most susceptible to losing business to online competitors. Like music, the discoverabilty of books often works better online than in stores, and that has the potential to make booksellers as redundant as music stores (which have closed in record numbers both in the US and around the globe).



Bookselling in the 21st Century: On the Difficulty of Recommending Books | Literary Hub

The question gets asked in a few different ways: What’s your favorite book? What should I read right now? Can you make me a recommendation? It never comes with a preamble, instead it arrives like an unexpected volley, which I, never athletic, struggle to return. There is no way to answer this question without knowing who’s asking. At this point, the question asked, all I know is that you’re the type of person to ask it without forethought.



What Google's approach to arts content means for publishing | The Bookseller

When I worked at Penguin, my IT guy would refer to books as data. As you might imagine, this didn’t go down so well with the editorial teams. Fast forward a couple of decades though and his terminology can be seen as prophetic of how some big tech companies see the arts, culture and books. In July, Google Arts & Culture launched a new app and website which allows you to “immerse yourself in cultural experiences across art, history and wonders of the world – from more than a thousand museums across 70 countries”. You can also subscribe to the new Google Arts & Culture YouTube channel.



Microsoft's New ePaper Display is Powered by Office Lights and Never Needs Charging | The Digital Reader

Over the past few years we've seen ereader and other epaper displays which were powered wirelessly by NFC. Now Microsoft has come up with a design for an epaper post-it note which is powered by ambient lighting.



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