• On their Facebook page, the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair reports:

In a cooperative arrangement with the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair to be held October 8 & 9, 2016 in the Exhibition Hall at the Seattle Center, the Ephemera Society of America is holding its first ever mid-year meeting in the Pacific Northwest. The regional presence of the Society, based in the East Coast, is part of its efforts to expand its mission throughout the entire United States and provide its West Coast members opportunities to participate in events and programs dealing with paper ephemera.

• Cecily Kane's piece on antiblack racism in science fiction is a must-read. Get a load of this: "Out of 2,039 original stories published in 63 magazines in 2015, only 38 stories could be found that were written by black authors. That’s just under 2%."

• The Man Booker longlist is out. I'm crossing my fingers for Paul Beatty's The Sellout, which I reviewed for Seattlish back in the days before this website existed.

• MAD Magazine's tribute to parody artist Jack Davis, who died recently, is genuinely touching.

• If anyone needed another reason to love Dolly Parton, the Imagination Library is a very good one.

• A German airline is allowing customers to bring an extra kilogram of books in their carry-on luggage:

How then to certify that the extra weight allowance will be used specifically for books? According to Alexander Skipis, managing director of the German Booksellers and Publishers Association, “All the 5,000 bookstores in Germany were equipped with the campaign stickers and the bigger part of them are participating.” Once you have the sticker, you are allowed the extra weight. Simple enough.