Amazon Considering a Lord of the Rings Series
Talks are very early, so we don’t know much, but Amazon is reportedly talking to Warner Brothers about bring Middle Earth to the internet as a series. Every streaming service is looking for their Stranger Things or Game of Thrones, and a sprawling epic like Tolkien’s masterpiece certainly has the scale. But are we ready for a new adaptation? It’s been just 14 years since The Return of the King won the Academy Award for Best Picture. What about Dune instead, Jeff Bezos?
Canada’s Indigo Bookstore Coming to America
I’m really interested in this. Canada’s largest bookstore chain, Indigo, has totally revamped its business by combining books with an extensive selection of sidelines to create what they call “a cultural department store.” I think there is room in the U.S. for an innovative and aggressive book chain, and Indigo sure seems like they have an idea that could work. They currently have 89 stores in Canada, and they say they will try opening 4 or 5 stores in the U.S. to see how it fares. Here’s hoping it goes well.
Drinking Booze, at least a little, Helps with Foreign Language Proficiency
In a boon to leisure travelers everywhere, a recent study found that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol improves foreign language proficiency. Here’s how the test went: Germans students who were studying Dutch were split into two groups, some getting water and some getting beer. Then, they were recorded having conversations in Dutch, then those recordings were scored by native Dutch speakers who didn’t know which recordings were by which group. The result? The slightly-tipsy Germans scored better.
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Today in Books is sponsored by Unbound Worlds.
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