Reading about the reading life: April 5, 2020 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).

Here are a few items I've found here and there to give you a little something to read during these Hard Times.

• Tracy at Cornerfolds write about her travails attempting to order books from a used bookstore. I will say that the only time I attempted to order from a certain fairly big used bookstore online it did not go well either. Both times the items I ordered were not as advertised, and both times I had to return said items. That is a big reason why I do not take chances ordering used stuff online nor on third party sellers. Those kind of traders always have wide latitude in representing their wares ("wide latitude" here can range from stretching truth a bit to outright lying). It's caveat emptor out there.  
• A while back Book Riot took a look at the condition of book social media site GoodReads. In essence, the site pretty much has not updated much of anything since they started out. GR getting purchased by Amazon has meant little since Amazon has not done much of anything with the site either. The issues the article discusses are issues I can attest to as a long time user: a poor search function, groups that are not really that good in terms of usability (or usefulness), and to be honest, Amazon's purchase did them no favors. I just use the site to track what I read, and that is about it. Another issue, not really mentioned in the article, is that there are no real (at least free) alternatives (sure, there is Library Thing but that is not free) to GR. BookLikes seemed like a candidate for an alternative, but it has proven to be unreliable and has often gone offline without any follow ups or such.
• The Washington Post recently reviewed the book Author in Chief and looked at books that U.S. Presidents have written (or had ghost written by someone else). I will be looking for the book if the damn COVID-19 virus ever settles down enough to go find it from a library (or maybe I get lucky and the library has it as an e-book).
• The National (UAE) takes a look at emerging Asian and African science fiction, including afrofuturism as recently embodied in the film Black Panther. The essay also includes various book titles that may be of interest and worth looking for. 
• As the pandemic was about to take off so to speak, this bit of news caught my eye. In North Korea, where they swore they had no COVID-19 cases, their leader was more worried about ordering writers there to produce more literary works praising the leader's greatness. Via Literary Hub.
• Lapham's Quarterly looks at magazines at the turn of the 20th century, a time when they peddled things like college degrees and architectural plans to build houses. It was all part of the progressivism of the time. 
• National Review has an essay looking at marginalia in books. 
• Finally, if you have binged watch every movie and show you can get your hands on, well, there are always books. If you are in the mood for horror, iHorror has a list of five horror series you could binge read if you have some extra time.