Kindle users can start borrowing e-books from their local libraries. This seems innocuous enough. But what about the proliferation of textbook rentals (e.g. the type on Chegg)? Some believe it may put us on the road to serfdom.
Checking Out And Renting
N+2.0?
N+1 takes the brave step of making all more of its content available online, at a snazzily updated website. You might start with Mark McGurl's knockout piece on Zombie novels, a fitting companion to our own Emily W.'s recent work on vampires. Remember, though: subscribing "is the right thing to do."
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Timing Is Everything
“In a world where reality has become stranger than fiction, actual books are no longer selling.” At The New Republic, Morgan Jerkins talks with agents, authors, booksellers, editors, and publicists about whether the Trump presidency is bad for the book business. And on that note, let's revisit our own Bill Morris on book releases: “There are few iron facts in the crapshoot of the literary life, but here’s one: In book publishing — no less than in music, war, and sex — timing is everything.”
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Computers Grading Papers?
The Hewlett Foundation is offering $100,000 to anyone who can create an "automated essay grader" (and in the process cost thousands of TAs their jobs).
Dabbling in Cliché
“As you can see here, it’s all about desire and longing.” Yes it is, Ragnar, yes it is. Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson is fascinated by what he calls “the oppressiveness of western culture claustrophobia.” His newest work, Bonjour, has shifted focus to poke fun at the ways in which the rest of the world elevates French sensibilities.
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If public libraries cannot lend eBooks, it is only a matter of time before “your local library” is converted into a Starbucks. I wish this were not the case, I’m a librarian and I hate to think that libraries would be so quickly dismissed, but it is the reality of the situation. If you want to live in a world with public libraries, you should be grateful for, if not celebrate, Amazon’s contract with Overdrive.