Libraries under threat (This week in books)

This week! Books!

Out of Circulation: Expanding Censorship in Public Libraries – PEN America – A new report from PEN America details the extent to which libraries are under unprecedented threat due to censorship challenges and librarian harassment, arguing the role of public libraries as essential democratic institutions is in “extreme jeopardy.”

New Study Analyzes the Impact of Library E-Lending on Commercial Book Markets – Jéssica Dutra and Robert Stoner, AAP and Authors Guild – Meanwhile, there’s a long-simmering battle between publishers and libraries around e-book lending fees, which has led to proposed legislation in some states that would force down e-book costs. The argument has a new salvo from a study sponsored by the AAP and Authors Guild, which argues that increased e-book lending results in reduced sales, buttressing publishers’ fears of cannibalization.

Libraries Are Not the Problem – Ron Charles – Don’t cry for publishers in this argument, argues Ron Charles, particularly after publishers were content to bemoan the decline of newspaper book sections without spending any ad money to support them.

Having been involved in some of the early negotiations around library e-book lending, while I too don’t cry for publishers, I believe authors suffer from unrestrained library e-lending and strongly believe in some form of restricted lending licenses. Libraries can support literacy and serve a democratic function in society without becoming endlessly free sources of downloadable content at the push of a button.

Pangram Has Emerged as the Gold Standard of AI Detection. Should You Trust It? – Lexi Pandell, Wired – Pangram has very savvily assumed a role as the leading company professing to detect AI writing. But is it actually any good? It claims a high success rate, but “humanizers” can easily bypass its detection, and critics continue to raise flags about bias.

What Do Booksellers Make Of “The End Of Reading”? – Joel Pinckney, Defector – A much ballyhooed Atlantic article declared our era “the end of reading,” even if the actual article was just the latest iteration of the perennial “people aren’t reading as much as they used to” moral panic. Said panic is (mostly) not shared by actual booksellers, who are experiencing increased sales and foot traffic, and trace the problem, if there is one, to deeper cultural factors.

Union Square to Launch Novella Publishing Program – Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly – Like short story collections, novellas have a reputation within the publishing industry for not selling well. But does that actually reflect consumer choice or is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Hachette is about to test that proposition, as they’re launching a new imprint focused on novellas.

‘The Corrections’ Is 25 Years Old. Its First Paragraph Still Feels New. – A.O. Scott, New York Times – When I’m editing novels, at the start of chapters I often leave the note [WHERE ARE WE ENTIRELY?], as writers often neglect to adequately orient the reader around the setting and help us visualize where the characters are. Jonathan Franzen had no such problem starting off his classic novel The Corrections, which turns 25 this year. A.O. Scott has a wonderful deep dive unpacking the first paragraph, which every writer should read.

The Latest Literary Scam: Emailing the Long-Dead Legends of 20th-Century Literature – Adam Hochschild, Lit Hub – AI-driven publishing scams have gotten so bad, even the late George Orwell is getting them.

Rachel Cusk Tried to Caricature Natalie Portman. She Only Caricatured Herself. (gift link) – Parul Sehgal, New York Times – It’s been a little while since I’ve read a juicy pan, and Parul Sehgal did not disappoint.

Gloria Steinem, Personification of the Women’s Movement, Dies at 92 (gift link), Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times / Wendell Berry, Writer Who Extolled America’s Agrarian Past, Dies at 92 (gift link), Robert D. McFadden, New York Times – Two very different but monumentally influential writers and thinkers passed away this week at 92.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

1. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
2. Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty
3. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
4. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
5. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

1. Going Further by Ted Cruz
2. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
3. The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore
4. This is Me by Hayden Panettiere
5. Strangers by Belle Burden

Young adult hardcover:

1. Barbie: Dreamscape by Alex Aster
2. Wings of Reverie by Anna Bright
3. But I Hate Him by Page Powers
4. Thornbird by E. Kennedy
5. Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie

Middle grade hardcover:

1. Kiki and the New Magic by Eiko Kadono
2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
3. Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
4. Growing Home by Beth Ferry
5. Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

• For novels, reality is not all it’s cracked up to be

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

• Follow me on Threads, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter

And finally:

How Saudi Arabia’s Neom Megacity Dream Collapsed (gift link) – Eliot Brown and Todd Johnson, Wall Street Journal – I continue to find myself utterly mesmerized by Saudi Arabia’s dream of the Neom megacity, a fantastical science fiction vision that now seems to be collapsing.

Have a great weekend!

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