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For some odd reason, on April 10, 2009 Amazon started removing the sales rankings of hundreds of books. Most of the books are books Amazon considers to be gay and lesbian.These are not pornographic titles. Most of these are not even fiction. These are all books that Amazon subject metadata identifies as having gay and/or lesbian interest. Mark Probst, author and publisher, is the first person I saw writing about this. here. Probst, who is both an author and a publisher, received this answer from Amazon when he wrote asking why sales rankings were being removed:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us. Read more

By Dominga Martin

The word Bling continues to stick [and] as a generation continues to bury themselves in glitz & jewels, two authors (Reggie Ossé & Gabriel Tolliver) uncover the birth of the word as well as the meaning behind some of our most sought after treasures.

In Bling, you will find a historical collage, history of the word and how it has shaped the culture throughout the decades.

Before the word Bling spilled out of the mouth of Lil Wayne, it was a slang term used in Jamaica.  Bling, is not a big word at all, but somehow it has managed to resonate throughout the hip hop culture. Read more

The American National Endowment for the Arts has released a report on "Reading On The Rise." You may remember last year's report "To Read or Not to Read." This year's report, like those of previous years, is largely based on a survey of a wide range of Americans. Last year's report and the 2004 report "Reading at Risk" were full of despairing news about substantial declines in reading. But this year's report is being presented as the opposite: "a decisive and unambiguous increase" in "literary reading" across the board, with the most dramatic rise (more than 20%) among Hispanic Americans. The reports also says that The 18-to-24-year-old shifted from a 20% decline in reading, in the 2002 survey, to a 21% increase in 2008. The report attributes both increases to community-based reading and awareness programs, particularly their own, which, given the outreach abilities of the NEA strikes me as a bit unlikely to have had that much effect. Read more