Reading about the reading life: December 4, 2022 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).

 

 

Once more, it has been a while from the last time I did one of these. I've been saving quite a few stories from the feed reader, so let's get to it. 

• The Fine Books and Collections magazine blog has an article on collecting romance novels. As they point out, this is a genre that has struggled to gain legitimacy among book collectors, but there are some folks who do collect novels in the genre. The post also mentions "Antiquarian bookseller Rebecca Romney’s 2021 catalogue, The Romance Novel in English: A Rare Book Survey, 1769-1999, which traces the history of the genre over three centuries." As of this post, you can download a free PDF copy of that catalogue if you are interested (link included in the post). The article also offers some additional links for resources if you are interested in the topic, maybe you want to start collecting. 
• Via Literary Hub.
• A look at a right wing publisher that specializes in publishing works by Nazis, fascists, and other white nationalists and bigots. Lit Hub here is highlighting work done by the Southern Poverty Law Center (see here). By the way, these are not people who sell their books in the fringes of society. The Big A is more than happy to help them sell their wares to any who desire to buy them. 
• A look at how literary fiction writers treat, or rather do not treat, money and economics in their works. For me, this is much like when you watch television, and you wonder how certain characters who work relatively menial jobs that pay little somehow manage to have seriously nice apartments in New York City. Even with roommates, let's be honest, that can't possibly be that realistic. But then again, you do not watch a sitcom to worry about the economics of the characters, and I would bet neither do folks read literary fiction looking to see if the characters have enough to make a living (unless the book specifically deals with the economics in some way, say to make some class point). 
• A reminder that "a good research librarian can help you find information you didn't even know you needed."  The article is written by a professional writer who also happens to be a former reference librarian.
  
•  I often say that a lot if not all those political tell-all books are going to end up remaindered eventually. Well turns out that Politico did a study using NPD Scan data, and they found that a lot of conservative books, especially related to the Trump era, really do not sell well if at all. Personally I think any editor who gives any of the liars, cheats, and con artists of the Pendejo in Chief a book deal should be ashamed of themselves, but as the study shows time and a bit of justice take care of sending those books into oblivion. I can tell you that for the most part those are books we would not bother selecting for our library. I am sure the local public library may select one or two given the town's demographic, but, and this is strictly anecdotal observation since I use my local public library, they do not select as many as they could be selecting. I am OK with that. 
  
• I often find interesting things at J-Stor Daily. 
• A look at some of the history of the beach reading genre. I read books of all kinds year round, so I never see the point of waiting for a certain season to read a type of book. However, many people use summer and beach season to read light and fluffy books. Turns out escapist reading, especially in times of leisure as well as times of anxiety, is not a new thing. 
• A look at dime novels and the books for boys genre. 
• Via Mel Magazine, apparently "Book Twitter," that part of the bird site that includes and/or attracts "writers, editors, publishers, literary agents and critics" plus I am guessing some actual readers and maybe a few librarians (but what do I know? I am not one of the literati), is not as peaceful as one would think. Part of the issue is that many book people have very strong opinions about certain aspects of reading and books, and they are not shy about letting other people know. The issues arise when other book people, with very strong opinions of their own and a serious inability to shut the fuck up, decide to respond, often in some pedantic and also often condescending way, and there go the fireworks. Keep in mind the article was written before Eli Cologne bought the site. Nowadays "Book Twitter" may or not be in a bit more flux, like many other bird site users, as they ponder whether to leave or not. I will add that despite being a professional academic librarian, a not professional book reviewer, and a reader I do not engage in the kind of arguments that "Book Twitter" often likes to nurture. Life is way too short for that, and I have plenty of books to read.  
• These days if you write a book, especially one that may deal in sensitive issues such as race, sexual orientation, and other delicate topics, and you want to avoid coming across as an insensitive jerk, even if unintentionally, you hire a sensitivity reader or two. This article from The Conversation explains what a sensitivity reader does and why you do want to pay them well.  Because you do not want to publish a book, have it win an award or two (like a book profiled in the article), then have sensitivity critics bombard your publisher to the point the publisher withdraws the book, and you have to apologize. So hire that sensitivity reader. The cost will be worth it. 
• The Library of Congress blogs looks at books going to war. The post highlights the Armed Services Editions, paperback books made during World War II to ship overseas and distribute them to American service members at no cost to the soldiers. 
• A couple of items via The Walrus.
• The author here wonders when libraries get less print and start favoring online sources and e-books more. Article also touches on things like digitization and when libraries get turned into things like "information commons" and "learning labs." Article can be of possible interest to non-librarian readers wanting to understand some of the issues academic libraries face when it comes to collection management. 
• Here is a look at the trend at this moment of television, and these days streaming services, doing book adaptations. Also looks at book writers who jump over to write for television, in part to search for better pay. 
• It is becoming a bit of a tradition in the books and reading article circuit to bemoan the decline of professional book reviewers, you know, those guys (mostly men) who wrote book reviews for pay in places like big city newspapers and fancy magazines. This time Inside Higher Ed takes a turn at it. It would be a dream for me to review books for pay, but I know that is not likely to happen, so I am holding on to my day job. Rest assured you can still read my free book reviews and other small reviews like decks and media here in this blog. 
• Speaking of print books versus e-books, out in Japan they did a study where they found students still prefer paper books over electronic books. Story via The Japan News. Personally I prefer to read in print as much as possible. However, in this day and age I find there are books that I need to read electronically such as review galleys, which increasingly are available electronically (and often loaded with DRM because heaven forbid they let you keep it) and library books. I am good reading e-books, but I do try to make reading easy on my eyes as much as I can. 
• Finally, a couple of items from Spanish language press. These two articles are in Spanish.
  
• Lecturalia looks at three things to know if you are donating books.
• El Independiente in Spain looks at how school curricula have changed. Less Don Quijote and more books from other genres and formats including graphic novels and comics.
  

 

If you made it this far, thank you for reading and checking out the blog. Feel free to comment on any of the stories.