WORDS

It’s Not Just US Booksellers Noticing A Gaping Maw Coming For Used Books

The booksellers are wondering how they’re supposed to feel. Tey’re "are “uncomfortable with the idea of books being destroyed - even if they admit not every title needs to be saved.” - BBC

Founding Literary Publications As One’s Home Is Shelled To Rubble

“I began asking myself: what will remain of this experience if it is not written down?”  - LitHub

Not Only Is The Rumpus Alive, But It’s Launching A Spanish-Language Literary Magazine

From the editors: “Rather than translating existing work from The Rumpus, El Alboroto will commission and publish original Spanish-language writing spanning cultural criticism, personal essays, interviews, fiction, poetry and comics.” - LitHub

Even In Oxford, Romantasy Books Are Taking Off

And NPR gets right down to it with the owner: What is “Monster smut,” and why is it so popular right now? - NPR

How To Solve The So-Called Literacy Crisis, With Fun And Joy

In groups, sometimes with full-throated yawps, it’s time to take back public, communal reading. - The New York Times

Cicero Commissioned An Ancient Roman Shorthand Writing System That We Still Use

“You can still type a symbol originally invented for Cicero nearly 21 centuries ago — at least if you configure your keyboard properly.” - Open Culture

What It’s Like To Be The Bookstore/Skate Shop Right By A Huge Influencer’s Acreage

“Turns out the people can’t get enough fly-fishing guides from 1973.” - The Paris Review

This Irish Thriller Writer Dominates The NYT’s Best Thrillers List

“Among the experts (291 editors, booksellers, librarians, book lovers and crime authors), four of French’s books made it to a list of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century” - more than any other writer’s books. - Irish Times

Publishers Face Increasing Pressure Over AI

“Until AI, there has been the expectation that no matter what is written in a book, It authored by a person, or people. There needs to be new terms in the social contract between reader and writer.” - Christian Science Monitor

Has Our Literacy Crisis Been Overblown?

Yes, Americans read less than they did forty years ago—not surprising, considering how many other forms of entertainment and information are competing for our time and attention. But does this spell decline or diversification? - The Bulwark

A Return To Handwriting Letters

Like so many of us, I stopped writing letters as I spent more time online. But in the past few years, I’ve begun to see handwritten letters anew, as a form of resistance against the doom and disconnection of our digital lives. - Psyche

Emily Wilson’s Translation Of “The Odyssey” Is Now A Bona Fide Hit Bestseller

In fact, several editions of Homer’s epic have seen enormous increases in sales since Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation came out (with an additional boost for The Iliad), but none more than Wilson’s, which was briefly, last month, the second-bestselling title of any kind in the U.S. - Slate

Publishers In India Join Forces With Police To Bust Delhi Book Pirates

“Last month, Penguin Random House India, working with Simon & Schuster India, Hay House, and a team of investigators, helped facilitate a police raid on two Delhi sites producing and storing pirated books. One was a full print-on-demand production line … and the other was a warehouse with more than 1,600 pirated copies.” - Publishers Weekly

When A Mother Jones Writer Asked Claude The AI Bot To Write A Novel

David Corn gave the Anthropic software a pleasantly meta seven-sentence plot summary as a prompt. Several minutes later, Claude produced a 6,000-word manuscript. Corn replied that that wasn’t novel-length, and Claude served up a narrative eight times as long. Corn: “I’ll cut to the chase: The novel isn’t so bad.” - Mother Jones

Publishing Industry Sold $32.5 Billion Worth Of Books In 2025

Looking at trends in the trade category, which includes religion books, sale rose 2.7% overall to $21.7 billion. The increase was led by religious presses, whose sales rose 9.3%, to $2.2 billion. Adult fiction sales had the second biggest sales increase, with revenue up 3.9%, to $7.1 billion. - Publishers Weekly

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss