Reading about the reading life: August 2, 2019 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Reading about the reading life" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is where I collect stories about reading and the reading life. Basically, these are items related to reading, maybe writing and literacy, that I find interesting and think my four readers might find interesting as well with a little commentary. As with other features I do on this blog, I do it when I have time or feel like it. Comments are always welcome (within reason).

Let's see what I've managed to find for this week.

• Dumb Little Man looks at "What you should know about the Indie Bookstore Renaissance." FTA: "It might sometimes look bleak for independent bookstores, but book publishing has been obsessed with predicting its own demise. That’s ever since the invention of the Gutenberg printing press. Back then, people thought it was the end of books. It turns out that it was only the beginning of something new."
•  Via the Tehran Times, find out why translated books are easier to publish in Iran than locally written books. 
• Meanwhile, all the way in Australia, an iconic occult bookstore is about to close. The reason? Not because the store is doing poorly or such. The reason is a combination of higher rents and a case of religious discrimination (i.e. landlord has differing "spiritual beliefs" to put it mildly). The bookstore owner is fighting with an anti-discrimination lawsuit. Via The Wild Hunt.
• In First World Problems, Slate has one of those doom articles about children's reading. This time they are bemoaning children's books based on licensed properties, you know, stuff like Disney princesses' books, etc. 
• Via Pandaily, a look at online Chinese novels, often known as Wang Wen. From the article: "Wang Wen writings come in different styles and at different quality points. For example, you would hardly be able to read and fully comprehend Shakespeare or Joyce during your daily subway commutes, and that’s exactly when the “cheesy” online literature comes in. If you look at people on the subway in any Chinese city, several of those around you would probably be killing time by reading online novels on their phones." For me, reading about this is one of those moments where I learn something new.  
• Public Books has a look at "how capitalism changed American Literature."  
• Nieman Lab has an interesting and somewhat extensive look at newspapers cutting back on being daily (i.e. publishing less than every day) to cut costs. This also looks at the picture of newspapers in print long term. I have some thoughts on this, and I may or not write a blog about it on this topic later. Meanwhile, have a look. 
• Speaking of interesting things, this should be of interest, and it is something bound to get better. Via Boing Boing, turns out that "data-mining reveals that 80% of books published 1924-1963 never had their copyrights renewed and are now in the public domain." This is something to keep an eye on. And I will say it again, may Sonny Bono burn in fucking hell for his odious and onerous copyright act he shoved down everyone's throats. Fuck that guy. Yea, I said it.