• Geneticists estimate that the Iliadwas written in 762 B.C., “give or take fifty years.” This squares with what classicists believe, too.
• Barnes & Noble says that rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated.
• Today in fearless luxury, these bespoke bindings are very beautiful.
• And speaking of books as status symbols: the book in medieval portraiture.
• The critics have spoken! The winners of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle awards are: Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk(fiction);  Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree(nonfiction); Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies(autobiography);  Marina Warner, Stranger Magic(criticism); Robert Caro, The Passage of Power(biography); and D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys(poetry).