Around the Web: Words, Sequels and the New Lego Bookshop
Oh, hello there! Looking for some reading material? We’ve got you covered. This week’s round up of bookish content features vocabulary insights from Merriam-Webster and Quirk Books, a look at Lego’s new bookshop set, and a quiz on classics from Mental Floss.
Words of the Year
Merriam-Webster announced their words of the year—the most searched terms of 2019. At the top of their list is “they.” Searches for “they” increased a whopping 313% this year over the previous year, likely spurred on by growing popularity of “they” as a singular pronoun for gender non-conforming individuals. Much of the rest of the list contains terms that saw spikes in lookups thanks to political events.
Bookish Words
The folks at Quirk Books tried their hands at coining a few new words to add to your vocabulary. These words are meant for book lovers and are fitting for a number of scenarios you might find yourself in.
The New Lego Bookshop
Along with the pop culture inspired sets, Lego create a modular city-building set each year. The latest in this series is a lovely bookshop inspired by houses in Amsterdam. It joins past Lego Creator Expert kits, which include a garage and a diner.
Sequels to Classics
Sequels seem to be ever more common these days, but sometimes they don’t make quite the same impression as the original. This might be the case with some sequels to classic books. Mental Floss has created a quiz that lets you try to name the not-so-classic sequels of well known books.