A Bibliotaph is...what?

And other bookish links.

Time for a round-up of bookish links I’ve collected over the last week or so….

1. 11 Bookish Words for Book Lovers

   
   definition : one that hides away or hoards books

   We all know one (or we are one). The term bibliotaph comes from French bibliotaphe, from biblio- + -taphe, the latter of which is from Greek taphos meaning “tomb”. One famous tomb of books is that of German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He is reported to have accumulated as many as 300,000 books.
   
   I thought I knew about damn near every weird word related to books. “Book tomb” was new to me.
   

2. Esquire’s writing about books is smart without being only for the literati
   
   Westenfeld has more stuff planned going forward, including the 2nd annual Summer Fiction Week, a “digital reinvention” of the magazine’s Summer Reading Issues of the ‘80s and ‘90s. She’s also thinking of ways to connect readers with their favorite writers and doing more unique long-form work you won’t find elsewhere.
   

   More compelling long-form literary coverage is always, always needed.
   

3. No, Taylor Swift Is Not Releasing a Memoir in July
   
   Whoever the famous person or people are that are behind the book, they have a momentary bestseller on multiple book sales sites, based on the rampant speculation. The mystery book from the Flatiron imprint is available for pre-order at $45, despite not having a known title or author.
   

   You know you look at publishing differently when it is the cover of price of $45 that jumps out at you. Rumors are that the book is actually from BTS. And I definitely, definitely didn’t have to look who that was up.
   

4. Unseen Gabriel García Márquez novel to be published next year

   
   Among the few details made public are that the book will contain five separate sections centred around Ana Magdalena and will number about 150 pages in total. An English edition has not yet been announced.

   
   Sounds like a familiar posthumous publication story: something interesting but half-done that will sell modestly and be a footnote to the career of a giant. Even so, glad to see it.
   

5. Taika Waititi to direct Klara and the Sun adaptation
   
   Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s New York Times best-selling novel, Klara and the Sun follows a robot girl created to prevent teenagers from becoming lonely. The film portrays her efforts to save the family of humans she lives with from heartbreak. Dahvi Waller (Mad Men) has penned the screenplay for the adaptation, which David Heyman will produce for Heyday Films.  Should the deal close, Klara and the Sun will likely be the next movie from Taika Waititi.

   
   I try not to get worked up about adaptations (if they turn out good, great! If not, the book is undamaged). However. Klara & the Sun is my favorite novel of the last few years, and I would love to see a good version of it. Its signal virtue is Ishiguro’s otherworldly mastery of tone. Waititi paints with much broader strokes.

6. Utah author of children’s book on grief charged with murdering her husband
   

   A Utah woman who recently published a children’s book on losing a parent has been charged with murdering her husband, the father of her three children.

   Kouri Richins, 33, of Kamas, Utah, a town outside Salt Lake City, allegedly poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, with a lethal dose of fentanyl slipped into a drink, according to authorities.

   
   I stared at this story for a good five minutes trying to figure out if what the right word for this is. It’s not irony. Shouldn’t there be a German word? Then I remembered: the Greeks are masters of terrible symmetries. How about this one: peripetei, a sudden reversal of fortune for the protagonist, often from good to bad, or vice versa.

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