Reading about the reading life: April 12, 2026 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).

 

Welcome to this edition of "Reading about the reading life." I have not done one of these in a while because as often happens, work, life, so on get busy for me to write up the post. Anyhow, let's take a look at a few items I've read on reading and the reading life that I think my four readers may find interesting too. To be honest, some of these articles are giving me ideas for writing and sharing that writing in the blog later. 

•  Back in October of last year, Literary Hub had an article asking how many books is too many. If you are a bit of a bibliophile, and you collect books in your home, you may have faced that question. I know that in the times I had to move from one place to another I faced the question as I've had to weed down my book collection to do the move. These days, to be honest, I am just not buying as many books as I might have in the past, in part because our living space is limited. Plus I personally have access to libraries-- two public libraries plus my academic workplace library. Only books I may get these days deal in topics I may not be able to easily access in a library such as esoterica, and I am favoring electronic books a bit more since they are easier to store once the DRM is removed or better yet buy them from publishers that don't clog their ebooks with DRM.  
• Via Taipei Times,  a look at the condition of Taiwanese literature, mainly facing the issues of exposure outside of the country and finding good translators. The literature is popular in South Korea and other parts of Asia. 
• If you have ever wondered about books and if they had bookstores in antiquity, this article from The Conversation takes a look at "what were books like in ancient Greece and Rome?"   
• Poynter has yet another article on the condition of book reviews, professional book reviews that is. In this case, they are looking at newspapers cutting back on their book reviews. I admit that at one point in the distant past I dreamed of writing a book review now and then in a local newspaper, but even back then that dream was starting to disappear, and over the years newspapers have just gotten rid of their book review sections at a steady pace. The article considers what is lost when those book reviews in newspapers are gone, but the sad reality is they are gone, and they are not coming back. 
• In the meantime, a bit of self promotion to remind my four readers that I do read books and write book reviews here on this blog.
• And speaking of why newspapers are cutting back on book reviews, here is one reason: book influencers. BookTrib has the story on those. If you've followed me, especially on social media, you may know I do not have a favorable opinion of influencers, but they are a sad reality, and the publishing world has jumped on that bandwagon.
• Another issue with book reviews being cut back at professional venues is that publishing houses may decide to publish less, especially in topics and areas that influencers do not really cover. Let's be honest, books like romantasy are pretty much safe because influencers peddling them are a dime a dozen. However, books in nonfiction are become scarce these days. The New Republic covers that story. Why should you care about nonfiction books? Because "nonfiction books are a crucial bulwark against the surging public culture of 'alternative facts,' outright lies, and the brazen embrace of ignorance." We are talking here about nonfiction books based on reporting and research, not just the mostly touchy feely memoirs we often see. Now if you are one of those folks who say "I will just watch a documentary," guess where that documentary got their research and reporting from to make that piece of media. Yes, nonfiction books. If you ever watch a documentary, a reputable documentary, you may notice that very often the experts they present are book authors, i.e. they wrote the book or books on the topic you are learning about in said documentary. 
• On a side note, a lot of my personal reading is in nonfiction, so again, check out this blog for some honest reviews from an avid reader and professional librarian.  
• Also if you've followed me here on the blog or on social media you know that I loathe AI slop. Chuck Wendig hates it too, and basically argues that "Writers Who Use AI Are Not Real Writers." This is worth a read.     
• Finally, out this week, PEW Research reports that Americans still have a strong preference for print format in their books.  This report has a few points I want to think about a bit in terms of my own reading preferences, but for now, it is worth a read.