Every Friday, the PQ Weekly Roundup collects the most shared links in our social media network—bookish articles, reviews, quizzes, recommendations and more—in convenient digest form.

• Words like “bubble” and “self isolate” seem so modern in the context of our current pandemic, but with respect to 1840s England? Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s experience in lockdown then seems pretty darn familiar now.

• We love independent bookstores because they are the biggest supporters of new and exciting Canadian books and authors outside of the blockbuster novels everyone else seems to be reading. And if you needed another reason to shop there instead of Amazon, well … consider the fake reviews the online giant seems to attract.

• I had far too much fun playing with this Google experiment on the way abstract painter Kandinsky, who had synesthesia, might have experienced sound and colour.

• This phrase will send a chill down the spine of any author (or publisher): post-publication corrections.

• And finally, a look at why the merger of two massive book publishers might not be a good thing for the Canadian literary ecosystem.

To everyone currently buried under a mountain of snow, we feel your pain. Read a hot book (how you want to interpret that phrase is entirely up to you) and keep warm!

Happy Friday,