Pieces of Interest

The Treasury Department is being sued by Arcade Publishing and three trade groups representing publishers and authors. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control wrote and enforces regulations that do not allow Americans to trade with countries our goverment designates as enemies. What thos amounts to when it comes to books is that American editors are unable to edit books from places like Cuba or Iran. I hope the Treasury Department loses this battle. (link via Bookslut. Note: The NYT requires free resgistration to read their articles.) An interview with Arthur Phillips and praise for the British Museum at Bookbrowse:

Hemingway’s tyrannical proverb haunts writing classes and roils the sleep of the lonely would-be novelist, who in relentless dreams and depressing reality alike feels himself drowning in Uncle Ernest’s quasi-papal bull. "Write what I know? What I know… But what," the author frets, "if I don’t know anything?" In that case, not to worry, for there is always the British Museum.

And finally, Scotland's booktown:Wigtown (I wonder if they could do something about the name?)