- Carolyn Dever reflects on what is lost when a library—in this case, the British Library—goes dark due to an ongoing ransomware attack. (Public Books)
- Chris M. Arnone argues for all (narrator) points of view. (Book Riot)
- Ella Creamer reports on an interesting study from the University of Valencia in which researchers found better reading comprehension when reading in print versus reading digital text. Per usual, there are a lot of potential explanations for this, so more research is needed. (The Guardian)
- Emily Temple shares an astonishingly comprehensive round-up of the best in this year’s book covers. (LitHub)
- Zachary Petit contrasts book designs that did and did not become covers this year. (Fast Company)
- The Book Marks team published their list of the “most scathing book reviews of the year.” I know not everyone likes negative book reviews but a) I appreciate a lot of what reviewers share in negative reviews because they clue me into content or styles I don’t like and b) I love a good hatchet job.
- Laura Sackton has advice for writing your own bookish year in review. (Book Riot)
- David Gilbert brings us the latest on Moms For Liberty’s scandals. (WIRED)
- Lewis Buzbee explores the fraught act of gifting a book. (LitHub)
- …and yes, we’re still doing censorship news because it’s not dying down, courtesy of Book Riot.
I had a chuckle about the most scathing reviews… ouch!
I must confess I didn’t agree much with the list of the best book covers. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The books in the list are all of a certain aesthetics for literary fiction that leaves me a bit cold. Covers of books aiming at other segments are totally different.
I know what you mean about the changing aesthetics. Over the years, I’ve discovered that there are some trends that really appeal to me (I’m a sucker for a highly decorated pseudo-Victorian cover) but the covers that strike me as sort of retro 1980s are just ugly to me.
And what’s up with so many romance covers switching to such bland illustrations? It’s hard to tell if something is YA or adult romance these days.