Critical Linking is a daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web, sponsored by Flatiron Books.
“For some reason, which I do not have time to pursue at this time, Hugo ballots almost never had comparable numbers of men and women. How pronounced this was varies from decade to decade but the trend is quite consistent.
It’s rather odd, therefore, that would be much fuss over gender balance in this particular year rather than some previous year, since until now people seemed perfectly happy with ballots dominated by one gender or the other. No doubt some subtle factor has changed… some esoteric element my quick perusal of the records failed to reveal. Perhaps it is as simple as a sudden embrace of egalitarianism! Feel free to offer other explanations in comments.”
Any guesses as to which gender has historically dominated the Hugos? Anyone? Beuller?
“Bookshop, a B-Corp business, is targeting online customers who are not currently buying books on indie bookstore sites by creating a national platform that allows socially conscious consumers an alternative that supports their values while offering one-click purchasing; an easy, intuitive interface; and two-day shipping. Bookshop will also guide book buyers with human recommendations and personality, not algorithms.”
As an avid indie supporter, I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.
“In an absurdly unhinged brand tweet on Monday, Chex Mix trolled followers by writing, “Don’t have a bookmark? Try using Chex Mix instead.” The tweet also included two appalling photographs of a bunch of rye chips, breadsticks, pretzels, and crackers acting as a bookmark — a sight that could give any sensible book-lover heart palpitations.”
If you EVER put food in my books, you can catch these hands.
Source : Hugo Awards Gender Bias by the Numbers: Critical Linking, September 13, 2019
