Book Marks: More Book Ban Absurdity, Etc.

In the rush to codify laws to win the culture wars, some lawmakers seemed to have overlooked how those laws could be turned on books they probably don't want to ban. CBS News reports that...

A suburban school district in Utah has banned the Bible in elementary and middle schools after a parent frustrated by efforts to ban materials from schools argued that some Bible verses were too vulgar or violent for younger children. And the Book of Mormon could be next.

Online, some have argued that the Bible would be ensnared by the book-blocking rules because of the "vulgar or violent" content. After all, according to CBS, "The Bible has long found itself on the American Library Association's list of most challenged books and was temporarily pulled off shelves last year in school districts in Texas and Missouri."

What's funny about this is laid out in the CBS report, which adds that "...the district doesn't differentiate between requests to review books and doesn't consider whether complaints may be submitted as satire."

It's probably safe to say that many of the rationales for banning the targeted titles rest on shaky ground. And what happens when stories about minorities, by minorities, are hushed up by book bans and possibly racist gatekeeping? Awful things written and said about them – by people from a newly anointed anti-government extremist organisation, for instance – invariably ooze into the gaps left behind.

"Books are windows into the ordinary," writes Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman in TIME. "We read them to see ourselves, to comprehend our lived reality, and sometimes to envision something better. But, as has always been the case, imagination is a privilege, popular narratives often only reflect the few, and any increase in representation is, more often than not, met with backlash."

Citing the targeting of The Hill We Climb by the book-ban horde and the backlash against this year's The Little Mermaid, Opoku-Agyeman's article is a rallying cry for those championing for more minority representation in publishing.

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Never thought I'd read about books being classified as an "affordable diversion". Of course, this is happening in Britain, where Brexit continues to reap its toll on the economy, and only cites annual sales data from only one publisher, Bloomsbury. But "affordable" as compared to what? Streaming services, apparently. From Yahoo! Finance...

“A paperback is much cheaper than even a one-month subscription to many services,” Bloomsbury CEO Nigel Newton said, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, comparing the price of a book to a Netflix Premium subscription worth $19.99 a month.

Sounds like good news for book publishing, but over here, thanks to a weak ringgit and hikes in prices all along the book supply chain, books are becoming less affordable. The price range for some new trade paperbacks are now in the RM80s and RM90s. And prices might still go up. In other news:

• After reading this article on award-winning Bangladeshi-Irish YA author Adiba Jaigirdar, I'm a) at a loss for words for a preamble, and b) very curious about her books. To think, her writing career apparently started with a henna tube.
• What's bad? Plagiarising an award-winning cookbook. Even worse? When the author is a lawyer. "Rachael Issy", or whoever they really are, had better buckle up for a bumpy ride.
• Another day, another example of why it's a bad idea for authors to go after book reviewers. I mean, grief over a four-star review because they said the ending was "kind of predictable"? Maybe the word rubbed them a bit raw because the book was based on their life story, but still.
• The war in Ukraine is arguably affecting shipping, food prices, etc., but demand for "escapist literature"? English-language authors of crime, romance and fantasy novels are getting offers from Russia to translate and distribute their works there, but the issue is a bit more complicated than simply not making Russian money. Not all Russians support the war and they need to make a living. But in Russia, apart from "foreign-authored escapism", the Guardian also reports "there was also a big appetite for self-help books and for historical works about fascist Germany." Hmm.
• "We all know the feeling of reading a book that touches us at our core. A book that somehow knows us intimately and takes us on a journey to understand ourselves more deeply. Especially for queer people, books can not only show us what’s possible, but they can also lead to revelations." At Literary Hub, Samantha Paige Rosen asks ten queer debut authors "to highlight a book that enhanced their understanding of their queerness, writing craft, or both."
• The Edge Media Group chairman, Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong, defamed by the author of Daim Zainuddin: Malaysia’s Revolutionary and Troubleshooter? No mention of what the defamatory statements were, but the High Court has ordered the author, Michael Backman, to pay a total of RM1.2 million in damages.
• "Publishing a book is often a cathartic experience for writers. It allows them to share their deepest and most heartfelt thoughts with the world. It's a chance to prove their critics wrong and create something meaningful too. ... However, for some writers, that initial euphoria can sour." Here are ten books that were written and later renounced by their authors.
• A profile of Richard Scarry, children’s book author and illustrator. Reminded of my old, old copy of his Busy, Busy World, which I defaced in my childish ignorance and is now lost to time.

Kindness At Work

In difficult times, recordings of Ajahn Brahm's talks have been a source of comfort. As he tends to repeat his stories, the trick is to not listen to too many a week, and block off other major distractions while tuning in. He was my drive-home listening for a spell.

One of his tales was about a monk(?) who was "kind" to an automated teller machine, wishing it "good day", and such. Apparently, the ATM "repaid" the kindness by spitting out a twenty-euro bill when the monk passed by.

Of course machines can't reciprocate human gestures. The monk's daily exercises in kindness were more of a reminder to himself to be kind, that even if one's day had been heck, there are things to be grateful for and be kind about.

But stories like this feed into the myth of Buddhism being more than just a philosophy about suffering and the end of suffering, fodder for adherents of the law of attraction and all that.

Nevertheless, I started practising that form of kindness with the car. Nothing special, just a few pats on a headlight when arriving at work or arriving home. On occasion, I do talk to it when nobody's looking, so don't call a shrink on me. I'm already seeing one.

I've been "kind" to the car for a few months and didn't expect anything to happen. But something did, yesterday evening, when I stopped to pump petrol and inflate my tyres. One of them had been repeatedly punctured over a few months and the others weren't looking well either, even though the treads seemed okay.

The problem tyre, located on the driver side up front, sported a cavity that wouldn't look out of place in a bad tooth. Something seemed to have punctured it (again) and a crack had expanded from the entry point.

Going to sleep that night was a little harder than usual. Imagine the catastrophe if that cavity had widened, weakening the tyre till breaking point. I've seen a tyre blow out of a lorry and it was terrifying.

So I have a lot to be grateful for today, even though it kind of sucked: more work poured in, and I already have a near-full plate. For one, the errant tyre, plus its friends, held out until I reached a nearby tyre shop this morning.

"Ye g*ds, how long has it been since you changed your tyres?" the tyre shop foreman exclaimed. "These guys are way past their expiry dates."

So it seems the date of expiry or manufacture was stamped on each tyre, though I couldn't read where. The foreman said something about "2014", so I assumed it was the manufacture date. Going by that, my last tyre change should have been in 2019, yet here I was.

I had been driving up and down highways with potentially explosive tyres for about four years.

I had all the tyres replaced, as the foreman recommended. I went for the cheaper ones they had but if they were substandard the shop wouldn't stock them – not when lives and property are on the line, right? They offered to do the tyre alignment next time, as I was in a bit of a hurry. The bill felt hot and heavy in my wallet but they were nice, so I agreed.

Tyre problems can remain hidden, especially parts that touch the ground where you can't see. What were the chances of that errant tyre showing off that cavity on that day, at that time, when I wanted to pump air into it?

So, yes, for the law-of-attraction crowd and Ajahn Brahm listeners, maybe the car was trying to warn me. PROBLEM. FIX. NOW.

What it's really about is not stressing (too much) about things that have already happened and work on the issue at hand when you can. Worrying about the hole in my tyre wasn't going to help, so I chilled and waited till morning when the tyre shops opened. Be grateful things got fixed.

I've heard many stories from the British-born Buddhist abbot, some of which were told to him, but never have I imagined I'd be living an episode of his tales.

Ugly

Reading about book vandalism at Tsutaya Books at Pavilion Bukit Jalil is saddening – and enraging. Since opening, the outlet has had to set aside "mountains of books have been damaged, intentionally - with pages ripped out, covers torn, children’s pop-up books that no longer 'pop-up'." This is beyond the occasional paper cup, plastic bottle or, worse, left on bookshelves.

As a result, the outlet has begun shrink-wrapping its books, and rightly so. Books displayed on the shelves belong to the store and they have the right to protect them for the sake of its customers who'd prefer getting their hands on pristine goods.

When in bookstores and libraries, we should strive to ensure unwrapped copies we browse or flip through are returned to their original places on a shelf in good condition. We don't do as we please in other people's homes, even if invited to do so, so why this callous treatment of a shop's merchandise?

What compels a right-minded person to damage covers and rip out pages from books, especially new ones? In Kuala Lumpur, a World Book Capital some more. Where does this impunity come from? And why do such behaviours persist?

One is tempted to link this behaviour to the example shown by certain figures in recent years, that it's fine to flout a few rules if you have connections, or if you don't get caught. If the higher-ups can get away with it, some might argue, why can't they? "Ah-lah, it's JUST a BOOK. They have insurance wat."

Were errant children involved? Because I can't wrap my head around the thought of an adult knowingly vandalising new books in this manner, then putting the item back on the shelf and pretend nothing ever happened. If parents are covering for their kids, congrats, they've just taught their children to hush up misdemeanours instead of owning up to them.

And insurance claims, if any, for damaged merchandise is a net loss to the outlet and customers who want it. I doubt any insurance company would accommodate a business plagued by vandals for too long.

A reading culture goes beyond buying and reading lots of books. It's also about being aware of what goes into the production of one, knowledge of the publishing ecosystem, attitudes towards book publishing and bookselling institutions, and how each printed tome is treated.

Such acts have further tarnished our reputation. When did we start becoming such asses? It's not the first time a bookstore was subjected to average Malaysian whims. And we're also known for other examples of awful behaviour.

Tsutaya is Japan's largest bookstore chain, and its opening at Pavilion Bukit Jalil was so hyped. People were lining up to get in on opening day. And yet, this happened. Will other overseas firms have to consider "the ugly Malaysian" a risk of doing business in Malaysia?

If a business's trust in its customers is betrayed, then the business has the right to limit what patrons can do within its premises until that trust is earned again. Tsutaya Bukit Jalil expressed hope that the cling film will come off their books someday. That day might be a long way off.

Book Marks: AI Lore Series, Hay Festival Bits

So there's this guy who used AI tools to publish nearly 100 books, each between 2,000 to 5,000 words long, all part of a series of "unique, captivating ebooks merging dystopian pulp sci-fi with compelling AI world-building".

He has sold 574 books between (last?) August and (this?) May, grossing nearly US$2,000, and he seems pretty chuffed about that: "To those critics who think a 2,000 to 5,000-word written work is 'just' a short story and not a real book, I'd say that these 'not real books' have shown impressive returns for a small, extremely niche indie publisher with very little promotion and basically no overhead."

Naturally, some have heaped scorn on this approach to writing. When this guy wrote the article, he was about to publish his 97th book. Who the heck can produce this level of output, even if each book is between 2,000 and 5,000 words long?

Though books under 10,000 words are no longer unusual these days, I wonder if the series' success has more to do with how the books "all cross-reference each other, creating a web of interconnected narratives that constantly draw readers in and encourage them to explore further." If so, readers would be compelled to buy more titles just to see where the story goes. Doesn't that work like a paywalled website?

What drew the most ire was probably the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT4 and Midjourney in the production. Detractors of AI-derived works argue that AI "borrows" from the data used to train it, and AI art tools outright steal from other artists. And how can one call it "writing" when one mostly prompts AI to generate text and images?

How involved was the guy in the process? Are they stories even good, given the speed each volume is produced? Are they re-readable or only good enough for one-time consumption? Many readers move on after reading one story or a series, but if I'm paying money I'd prefer to keep my copies for a while.

Perhaps the intriguing thing about this "AI lore" series would be how "the web of interconnected narratives" are constructed. It could be a new or reimagined way of storytelling that might be worth studying. These books aren't the first to be created using AI and we'll be seeing more of these as more people dip their toes into AI-assisted writing and publishing.

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At the Hay Festival, author Rebecca F. Kuang had thoughts about sensitivity readers, the number of BIPOC voices in publishing, and whether authors should not write about races other than their own.

Also at the festival was Joanne Harris, who said that boys should be encouraged to read books about girls because "a boy who is afraid to read a book with a girl protagonist will grow up into a man who feels that it’s inappropriate for him to listen to a woman’s voice”.

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Excerpts from a report on children's literature in India look interesting and sobering. The challenges faced by authors, illustrators, publishers and booksellers are daunting, and one quote from a children's book illustrator stands out: “No Indian illustrator survives only by doing children’s books. They’re also doing other stuff, like illustrations for corporate websites and projects.”

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"Growing up, I didn’t have much access to children’s fiction that featured Filipino-Americans, let alone Filipino main characters, so that’s who I wanted to put front and center in my own work. There’s something so wonderful about seeing someone like you in popular media, and readers have reached out to me to let me know how much they connect with my characters."

The story of Filipino-American writer Tracy Badua, and how a lack of Pinoy representation inspired her to publish abroad.

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It's been a long while since I heard about author Luis Alberto Urrea, so it's nice to read about him again. He has a new novel out, inspired by his mother who served in the Red Cross Clubmobile Service during World War II. I had read Queen of America, arguably part of a duology that retells the story of his great-aunt, Teresita Urrea, the folk hero known as the Saint of Cabora. Good Night, Irene is going into the TBR pile.

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How scary is this: a hacker stole a million e-books from Korean online bookstore Aladin and threatened to leak them unless paid a hefty sum. But around 5,000 of those e-books were apparently leaked already. The Korean Publishers Association is understandably upset. "Those ebooks will wander around like ghosts for several decades and practically lose all of their value as goods," it told Korea JoongAng Daily.

Book Marks: Age-Appropriateness, New Leaf Crumples

Young adult titles have become a target for book bans but the genre has another problem, according to Rachel Ulatowski at Book Riot. As more adults read YA, publishers start marketing YA titles to grown-ups, leading to the ageing-up of books in the genre to appeal to the adult market. Books written specifically for young adults may not necessarily appeal to grown-ups, and isn't aged-up YA just, well, adult fiction?

Publishers may have their eye on the bottom line, but the blurring of lines between YA and adult genres would be bad news for the former. "YA literature was created specifically to help young readers to transition from children’s to adult books, and to give them resources that tackle topics that they may be dealing with in real life," Ulatowski wrote. "Making YA literature more appealing to adults undermines the very reason why this group became its own market in the first place."

Speaking of YA and age-appropriate genres...

Writer Kaia Alexander reported to The Daily Beast with incredulity that a teacher in her son's school objected to a book the kid brought to class: a copy of Stephen King's Cujo. The teacher cited a Goodreads write-up of the book that stated it was "intended for adults" and recommended The Hunger Games instead. "How is this more appropriate?" Alexander said. "This is a book about children murdering children.”

Nevertheless, they gave the book a try. The verdict: “He’s looking at me like, ‘This is a very dark book.'" And: "He says he likes Stephen King’s writing style better.” Owch.

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New Leaf Literary Agency has dropped a bunch of authors from representation, some of whome were in the middle of contract negotiations with publishers. "Reports indicate that this was a result of New Leaf letting one of its agents go, and rather than finding new representation for this agent’s clients, the agency dropped all the clients entirely," The Mary Sue reported, adding that this wasn't first time the agency had done this.

I've been seeing authors and others take to Twitter to speak about this in the past few days. What's more, all the dropped authors are not big names. Leaving authors without representation during contract negotiations is bad enough, but new ones need that representation, and this move is irresponsible, to say the least.

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I don't believe in review-bombing, but some books are itching to become targets. Like Josh Hawley's Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs. Hawley, a Republican senator, was notorious for raising his fist in support of the January 6 insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol – and filmed running away from them afterwards.

Considering his conduct of late, many aren't sure if he's the right spokesman for the values the book espouses, nor are they sure of the wisdom behind the book's title. Headline writers critical of Hawley and his book, like this one, seem to be having a ball.

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Malaysians are now reading more, according to initial data from a government survey. The Star reports that we are now reading an average of 20 books a year, compared with 15 in 2014, with fiction being the most popular genre.

If you think that's not much of an improvement, the report adds that "...similar studies on reading habits were carried out in 1996 and 2005; each study showed that Malaysians aged 10 and above only read an average of two books a year."

The survey, however, seems to only focus on borrowings from the National Library of Malaysia, and the 2014 study being referred to may be outdated. Still, good news, right?

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While the debate over the use of AI and large-language models in literature is vigourous in the West, it's all quiet over here in Malaysia. This article on the Penang Art District portal features thoughts from some local authors, publishers, and professionals on AI, and how the authors and publishers are incorporating its output in their works.

Perhaps this piece will encourage take-up of AI among Malaysian creatives and spur debate on its entry into our work and our lives. AI is here to stay and we have to learn how to deal with it.

(Oh, yes, I was among those interviewed for the article.)

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An interview with Mia Tsai, author of Bitter Medicine, a xianxia-inspired fantasy novel about a French elf and a Chinese immortal. The rest of the blog is worth exploring for more reviews and interviews, mainly revolving around titles by authors of Asian descent.

Taking Offence

Actor and author Tom Hanks has weighed in on the recent trend of editing classics and other long-published works for newer, more sensitive audiences.

"Well, I'm of the opinion that we're all grown-ups here," Hanks was quoted as saying. "And we understand the time and the place and when these things were written. And it's not very hard at all to say: that doesn't quite fly right now, does it?

Many, I'm sure. share Hanks' opinion. As adults we should know how to control ourselves whenever we encounter something that offends our sensibilities. Sexist portrayals of women, racist depictions of minorities and such in art and literature should be read within the context of their eras. Content that might be triggering to readers ... that should be discussed separately.

"Let's have faith in our own sensibilities here, instead of having somebody decide what we may or may not be offended by," he added. "Let me decide what I am offended by and not offended by."

Trouble comes when someone decides they are offended by something in a book and are upset when others don't feel the same, so they set out to change that. This is partly behind the movement to ban books – that's what it is – in the US and the horsepower on that bandwagon has been so impressive, others have hitched their carriages to it.

Even with all the details emerging from reports on the issue, the findings of The Washington Post still astounds. The Post analysed a set of challenges to books filed in "the 2021-2022 school year with the 153 school districts that Tasslyn Magnusson, a researcher employed by free expression advocacy group PEN America, tracked as receiving formal requests to remove books last school year." They found that...

Nearly half of filings — 43 percent — targeted titles with LGBTQ characters or themes, while 36 percent targeted titles featuring characters of color or dealing with issues of race and racism. The top reason people challenged books was “sexual” content; 61 percent of challenges referenced this concern.

The paper also revealed that "The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people."

Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial filers constituted 6 percent of all book challengers — but were responsible for 60 percent of all filings.

Ye g*ds. Ninety-two challenges by one person?

The rationale for many of the objections are the usual: they don't want young people reading about sex or LGBTQ lives and issues, these books normalise LGBTQ, and so on. Better to learn about all that from the likes of Fox and Moms for Liberty, right?

Also mind-blowing is the objection filed by a parent over The Hill We Climb, an edition of the poem by American National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, which was read aloud at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Why? "Cause confusion and indoctrinate students," the complainant wrote. On two pages of the book: "Is not educational and have indirectly [sic] hate messages."

C'mon now, a poem from a National Youth Poet Laureate is "not educational" and has "hate messages"? Also, the complainant seemed to have mistakenly attributed authorship of the opem to Oprah Winfrey. That the complainant has links to groups like the Proud Boys and Moms for Liberty (HA!) and is a Ron DeSantis supporter is probably no coincidence.

Taking offence has become a pastime of sorts with certain people. Armed with the outsized influence and reach granted by social media, they set chatrooms and threads on fire, infecting the susceptible with their outrage and indignation, dampening voices trying to cool things down. So many fall for this incendiary rhetoric and BS.

It feels like more and more are giving up the ability to question, research and think critically and leaving all that to certain authority figures who would turn out to be less than authoritative than they'd like to think.

Book Marks: War On Books Continues, Aye To Sensitivity Readers

The book-banning brigade marches on. Laws are being passed in the United States that targets publishers deemed to have provided "sexually explicit" material to schools or educational agencies.

Summer Lopez, Chief Program Officer, Free Expression at PEN America, writes about this new tactic to ban books in TIME and that it's not about shielding young people from "obscene" material...

Let's be clear. These bills are not about protecting children. They are about using the power of the state to intimidate private companies and ban ideas and stories that some people find offensive or uncomfortable. By going after private publishing houses, these bills represent an appalling and undemocratic attempt at government overreach, and yet another escalation in the war against the freedom to read.

In Tunisia, authorities seized two books at the Tunis International Book Fair and temporarily shut down a publisher's pavilion. Perhaps what's egregious about this is that it happened after Tunisian president Kais Saied said at the event's opening: "It is important to liberate thinking because we cannot accomplish anything with rigid thoughts.” And it's no surprise that the seized books appear to be critical of the president.

And in Hong Kong, a "war on libraries" is being waged, leading to books being pulled off shelves. The public are encouraged to snitch on anyone whose words "threaten national security" in Hong Kong and this has taken the wind out of the sails of anyone who wishes to publish or write books. "Much as mainland Chinese writers used to get their banned books published in Hong Kong, authors who write about Hong Kong issues are now choosing to publish in Taiwan, where the publishing industry is much freer," states Radio Free Asia.

On World Press Freedom Day, Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib explained why writing means so much to her, in the context of censorship in Kuwait. Her situation sounds familiar, particularly where she says that books written in English but not translated to Arabic would "fly under the radar" of censors, and how draconian laws that restrict freedom of expression intimidate authors and booksellers to self-censor, just to be safe. Echoes of growing sentiments by writers and publishers everywhere.

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An argument for sensitivity readers, and why seeking one during the editing process might be a good idea:

In the UK, if you are a writer from an underrepresented background, it is statistically very likely that your in-house editor won’t be. Given this low ethnic and class diversity (the industry does a bit better on gender, sexual orientation and disability) a sensitivity reader’s feedback can crucially round out that of an in-house editor’s.

Furthermore, the writer adds, is not censorship because a sensitivity reader is there to advise and that the publisher (and maybe the author) has the final say.


Other news:

• The belief that writing children's books is child's play is flawed. The job requires another set of skills and more thought because these materials are moulding malleable young minds. So it's sad to read of children's book authors not liking children's books. Some are discouraged by poor reception to their work, some are pigeonholed as children's authors even though they want to explore other genres. What would it take to forever bury the idea that literature for children is lesser than that of adults?
• As African countries gained independence from colonial rule, African women writers played a key role in the decolonisation of children's literature as they produced works with local themes. "They wrote for children of all ages, creating fiction, folk tales, and works used in school textbooks," writes Anna Adima, Post-Doctoral Research Associate in History at the University of Edinburgh. "With their words, the women imparted lessons they believed were important for the post-independence generation to learn in order to undo colonialism’s 'cultural bomb'."
• Author Lisa Harding revisits her debut novel a few years after publication and sees it in a new light. "To have the opportunity to revisit the same novel through the lens of distance and time was an extraordinary experience, a rare chance for me to address any lingering concerns. I remember at the time of its initial publication, some of my friends saying, but it is unrelentingly bleak, and my response was, well, of course it is. Now, I feel differently."
• Is ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, going into book publishing and distribution? A trademark application filed by a ByteDance subsidiary seems to signal that, and with #BookTok all the rage at the moment, this seems like a logical step. And, as TechCrunch notes, the company isn't new to e-book, citing dealings with e-book reader Yuewen, web novel app Tomato Novel, and a web fiction app called Mytopia.
• Sara Anjum Bari, editor of Daily Star Books, sits down with literary agent Kanishka Gupta for a chat about what agents do and what they look for, the people he's worked with, plagiarism in South Asia, and how his work with books changed him as a writer and a reader.
• "To keep three-dimensional book publishing alive, you do have to push the form a little bit and delight people and make something new," author Dave Eggers tells Fast Company. But will his new book, The Eyes & The Impossible, with its gilded edges, foiled-stamped spine, and bamboo hardcover, get more publishers to do that? The book is a work of art that calls to mind well-crafted tomes such as The Book of Kells, created when books were luxuries. They still are, but Eggers' project could inspire the creation of limited editions for certain bibliophiles.
• Here's a round-up of what was discussed during the annual general meeting of the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The topics included the Internet Archive case, AI in publishing, and the bills restricting access to books by several US states.
• Somebody has been thinking about copyright and fair use in the advent of AI in art and literature, and has penned their musings in Freethink. "The inevitable raft of copyright lawsuits raises one key legal question that threatens to stop these AI models in their tracks: Do the creators of these tools need permission from the copyright holders of the works they use to 'train' their AI models?"
• When talking about AI, people tend to think of online book recommendation features or services. These use a lot of data, much of it user-generated content. Book Riot explores why these services may not do the job right and not to rely on AI (as of now) for what to read next.