Book Marks: Public Pages, More LibGen Shenanigans

Public figures tend to be fair game for writers and journalists, and if a book or an article turns out to be libellious, a lawsuit brews. But what if an author is charged for merely writing a book about someone, however well-researched? That's what happened to Webster Ochora Elijah in Kenya, who wrote a book about the Kenyan president's daughter.

This seems to have been prompted by a case where another daughter of the president was impersonated on Facebook, and by all means, this should be stomped out. But if there are no skeletons, why go after a little-known writer of a book with little publicity? Now the Streisand effect is likely to kick in, prompting a scramble for the book.

Perhaps a more straightforward instance of "misuse" was in the ruling by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, which fined Penguin Random House for putting a photo of a socialite in a book about women with ties to Mexico's drug cartels. "...[Violeta] Vizcarra's photograph, sourced from her social media without consent, was featured on the book's cover and within its pages," the Latin Times reported.

Drug cartels are deeply enmeshed in Mexican society, so no surprise if anyone were involved with them. However, Vizcarra denies any ties to the cartels and says the use of her photo in the book could be defamatory. But what if the book's claims about her could be proven?

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Canadian cookbook author Greta Podleski should be glad her latest, Every Salad Ever has launched and is doing well. Then she received news about an impersonator "releasing" another cookbook with the same title, apparently cashing in on the original's popularity. Chumps like this have been trying to make a killing on Amazon, hoping they won't be found out too quickly before getting enough coin. Sucks that what's arguably the largest online marketplace is infested with such parasites. Speaking of which...

Author Harriet Evans is fuming that her books, including one that is not published yet, were found in the notorious LibGen data set and have been mined by Facebook's parent company Meta to train its AI models. "This is the Treasures, out 12th June from Viking," Evans wrote on Substack. "So they've stolen the text from - where? I don't know. Netgalley? My own Word document? The cloud? This sounds vague, but that's how big tech works." Vague, and hella scary.


Elsewhere:

• A Bulgarian translation of Tan Twan Eng's novel, The House of Doors, discovered by the Bulgarian ambassador to Finland, led to the inaugural Malaysia-Bulgaria Literary Diplomacy Dialogue in Helsinki. "The event, hosted by the Embassy of Malaysia in Helsinki and moderated by Chargé d'Affaires Ariff Ali, brought together Malaysian, Bulgarian, and Finnish readers from fields such as literature, creative writing, art, and international relations," The Star reported. A happy chain of events, but not everyone will feel the same.
• A woodcut artist's masterpiece inspired by the Sabahan harvest festival has been turned into a children's book. According to The Star, "The book was released to coincide with this year’s Kaamatan, the annual Kadazandusun harvest festival, and is available at the Arcane Literature and Kinderstories Hub booth at the 2025 Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, held at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur."
• The Guardian and the BBC highlighted the toxic books of yore, covers of which were made green using arsenic, mercury, copper and others. The striking green colour on the covers of many old books pose a health hazard, so a tool to determine whether a tome is a health risk was developed. Reader, beware!
• "Women in Nepal face entrenched systemic and cultural barriers, and publishing is no exception. Their works are undervalued, dismissed as less 'serious', and their leadership questioned. Also, gendered expectations limit time, mobility, and access to networks — making it harder to write, publish, or participate in literary life." A Q&A in Global Voices with Archana Thapa, an author, editor, and publisher based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• "I wrote [Hunchback] thinking that it is a problem that there were few authors with disabilities. Why did the first [disabled] winner [of Japan's Akutagawa Prize] not appear until 2023?" Saou Ichikawa struggled to be read in a country where the disabled are virtually invisible, but her winning one of Japan's oldest and most prestigious literary awards seems to have alerted some to the existence of ableism there. The English translation of Hunchback, longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, can be found in many local bookstores.
• Still no love in China for boys love, it seems. Writers of stories in that genre were targeted in a recent crackdown and, if found guilty, are subjected to heavy penalties. Since Beijing cracked the whip on this, many such authors have been detained or are laying low, including the creator of the wildly popular Heaven's Official Blessing and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.
• "...going forward, I think because my allegiance is to the source material, my goal is always to find the best team for the adaptation, not to say that what makes the best book and what makes the best show and what makes the best movie are the same, but they're in conversation." Variety speaks to V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the Vicious series, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, about her writing, film adaptation of Addie LaRue, and more.
• Writing a book? You're not alone, and chances are what you're writing has already been written by dozens, if not hundreds of others. Kate McKean over at Electric Literature shares the 10 types of novels swamping the inboxes of literary agents of late and what you can do to make yours stand out. All the best.
• "I know that summer reading has always been popular, so June is an excellent time to publish books. And I also know that the first week of each month is usually the most jam packed with new releases. I know too that on the first Tuesday in June of 2024 there were 15 new books that I was excited about ... so June has not always been this overflowing." Seems there are too many books for Maris Kreizman and this June appears to be a bumper month. Why is that?

Finally, it seems Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim thinks Malaysians don't read enough and spend too much time on social media. Anwar was speaking during the closing ceremony of this year's Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair.

I can't verify the prime minister's claims but from the crowds at KLIBF surely Malaysians do read? Perhaps, just not the books the PM had in mind? And what sort of reading culture is being fostered in the country when, as author and indie musician Brian Gomez helpfully pointed out, the authorities actively ban books they don't like?

Oh, apologies for ranting. Guess I'll go read a book.

Book Marks: AI Hallucinations, War On Rainbows

Think AI can help with your reading lists? Think again. A list titled "Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer", published in the Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer, contained titles hallucinated by AI such as "Tidewater Dreams" by Isabel Allende, "The Last Algorithm" by Andy Weir, and "Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee. The author of the list admitted to using AI and has expressed embarrassment.

This may have been a simple goof, but Claire Mulroy feels different, in light of a growing trust deficit in the media and the marginalisation of authors from certain demographics. "...in both the book world and the journalism industry, this kind of AI-generated content threatens and undermines the creativity that makes us readers in the first place." In response, Literary Hub recommended some real books based on the AI picks.

And it's not just book recommendations. At least one author was caught using AI to rewrite passages in their book. In a stunning example of how use of AI dulls the mind, these authors left the AI prompts they issued to chatbots in their published works. Two of the authors have copped to – and defended – their use of AI.

If one notices just how prolific some authors are, maybe this is one reason. Current AI models aren't advanced enough to be creative in human ways and its use here is arguably akin to theft. But if you're going to steal or cheat, at least be smart enough to cover your tracks.

Getting bots to help you steal an author's style cuts writing time considerably, enabling you to publish more. A writer at Screen Rant believes the resulting avalanche of AI-assisted work will swamp the shelves, real or virtual, drowning out authors who deserve more air. "Should AI flood the market," writes Rose Graceling-Moore, "this becomes an issue that disproportionately affects marginalized authors, many of whom have found a home in self-publishing in an industry where accusations of discrimination are a major issue."

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Russia seems to be targeting publishers, booksellers and companies for promoting "the 'extremist' LGBT movement" with renewed gusto. The International Publishers Association (IPA) has decried the crackdowns and stands with those who are being subjected to raids and arrests. Since I last read about this, the scope of the ban seems to have widened, impacting books that carry anti-war messages and criticism of Russian leadership.

The bit about a woman who "was sentenced to five days in detention for wearing frog-shaped earrings in rainbow colors" hits close to home. Swatch outlets in Malaysia were raided in 2023 and rainbow-coloured watches were confiscated for having "LGBT elements". This is in line with the government's anti-LGBT stance, which has also seen books and other materials with LGBT themes and elements taken off the shelves.

Speaking of shelves: several more titles have been added to the list of prohibited publications by the Malaysian Home Ministry. Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood; bestselling Tuan Ziyad: Forbidden Love by Bellesa; Darlingku Mr Cold Mafia by Nur Firsha Nadia Mohd Noor Kusairi; Mischievous Killer by Aira Syuhairah Noradzan; Suhuf Abraham and Kougar 2 by Shaz Johar; and The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas have all been banned.

Some might be baffled as to why, because the catch-all reason given is vague. Hazelwood's was apparently banned for the cover. Cold Mafia drew attention for... eww. In Tuan Ziyad, a young man brings his intended fiancée home, only for the latter to discover that her future father-in-law was her sugar daddy, who still can't let her go. Ewww~.

I don't see how effective banning is. Stories like Tuan Ziyad are all over platforms like Wattpad, which are brought to bookstores by publishers trying to cash in on the authors' ardent audiences online. Would it surprise anyone if even darker, spicier stuff can be unearthed there? At best, all banning does is send people back to cyberspace for the originals – and down certain rabbit holes.

As far as I know, the Home Ministry doesn't have a unit combing through reams of published material. Investigations tend to be launched based on reports, either by individuals or NGOs, or if it makes the news. And the obsession with anything LGBT is influenced by how fetishised the community is, to sell lurid narratives about it – the perfect distraction from the latest political hijinks or whatnot. However, we probably don't have to speculate what Russia is trying to distract its citizens from.


In other news:

• "Like it or not, we are all aging and one day it might be us, no matter how fit, smart, fine-looking, successful, and talented we once were or still are. This moment fired up a spark in me, so I decided to write about the idiosyncrasies of old age." A scene in a hotel lobby bar prompted Ivy Ngeow's exploration of family relationships in her latest novel, In Safe Hands.
• "I decided that no matter what it looked like, I was going to open a bookstore so that I could contribute in some small way and stand up for intellectual freedom in the US." Book bans, growing censorship and erasure of records in the States are fuelling the rise of independent bookselling by proprietors compelled to do something in a fraught literary landscape.
• At the PEN World Voices Festival, novelists Joyce Carol Oates and Carmen Boullosa spoke of their reissued works, Broke Heart Blues and Texas: The Great Theft respectively, and how and why these titles, written many years ago, still resonate today.
• "All of Gaza's universities have been leveled by airstrikes. More than 85 percent of schools in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed, according to U.N. experts. According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, three university presidents and over 95 university deans and professors, including 68 holding professor titles, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes." Yet, some in Gaza persist in teaching and learning. The Intercept presents four stories of teachers and students pursuing learning under Israeli bombardment.
• People shouldn't be killed while researching for their books, but that seems to be a risk if you're a journalist writing about the exploitation of the Amazon. While friends of British journalist Dom Phillips finished the work he began, that he had to risk death to write is tragic and galling. But it's an awful reality. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 122 journalists and media workers were killed last year.
• "What happened to the bestselling young white man?" asks Vox, prompting reminiscences of discussions over the male-only publisher Conduit. The piece isn't about how white male authors are going extinct but that fewer books by younger male authors don't seem to be coming out as much these days. It's tied to a podcast, so it doesn't go too in-depth. But if stories by young men are being passed over without good reason, that would be a shame. Still, when it comes down to it, if you're male and white, you'd still have a better chance to get published, so perhaps one should ask, are they writing and is it worth publishing?
• "Though it may seem counterintuitive, one of the most effective tools for generating new work or pushing stories to the next level is to impose creative constraints on them. Poetry is often taught by introducing students to rigidly structured forms like sonnets, villanelles, and haiku. Prose writers would be well-served by learning from this approach." Writing WITH constraints? Not as novel as it sounds, according to these authors.
• "The idea that art will save us is the kind of magical thinking that flourishes when people feel helpless. ...When dragging your way up the social ladder looks increasingly impossible, then vibes become as good as personal initiative—or actual political action." RS Benedict in Current Affairs on why resistance through art is no substitute for real resistance.
• Art may not save us, but it can do other things. While not really artistic in nature and mission scope, street paper and social enterprise Big Issue did help an author get her book out. "A moving account of one couple's time living homeless on the South West Coast, [The Salt Path by Raynor Winn is] about to become a major motion picture". The book – and the movie, which should be released by now – may help boost tourism in the area but Thomas Horn, writing in The Independent, doubts it will address the other issue that the book chronicles. "The South West is a place of extreme beauty, but also extreme poverty. If you look beyond the glorious coastline and posh fish restaurants ... you'll realise there are lots of issues making life unaffordable."
• Penguin Random House's acquisition of comic book and graphic novel publisher Boom! Studios last year means no more unlimited, simultaneous access to Boom!'s titles for subscribers of the digital platform Comics Plus. By the time you see this, all Boom! titles on Comics Plus would have been deactivated.
• On comics, graphic novel publishing pioneer Rich Johnson notes that "The graphic novel section is the only section in bookstores organized by title. Every other section in the store is organized by author." He thinks it's a problem when people want to search works by author and offers some suggestions on how to shelve titles in the graphic novel section.
• Kristen Arnett at Literary Hub gives advice on supporting a friend's self-publishing endeavours (or not), what to do when you can't enjoy reading because your writer's hat is still on, and whether you're an ass if you think websites paywalling articles suck (it DOES, but...).