Critical Linking: April 14, 2023

The most interesting bookish links of the week.

For about seven years, I wrote daily round-ups of bookish links for Book Riot. That particular format turned into our daily newsletter called Today in Books and is now ably sent everyday by Book Riot staff and contributors.

Still, I email, bookmark, star, favorite, and otherwise notice links for myself everyday. And I thought maybe some other people would find these interesting. My thought is to send these along on at the end of the week. Let me know if you find them at all worth your time. Going to keep it to 10.

1. Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
   

   And Scholastic wanted to license the book! But only with a change to the author’s note. My offer was contingent upon it. Without even looking I knew what it was going to be. It was going to be the paragraph that inspires 1 star reviews from angry patriots, the one that sends them to my inbox with words unfit to repeat here or anywhere. And sure enough that was exactly what they wanted to remove. 
   
   I don’t know if we will get Scholastic’s side of this, but this sure looks to me like a real-world example of the chilling effect that the nationwide surge in bannings, challenges, and defunding drives can have.
   

2. Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023
   
   By my count, there are four people who are primarily writers on the list this year, but maybe the most relevant book-adjacent honoree is ALA Executive Director Tracie Hall. What a time to have that gig.
   

3. How Bookshop.org Survives—and Thrives—in Amazon’s World
   
   That night, in Berkeley, the unusual combination of evening solitude and a touch of alcohol knocked something loose in Hunter’s brain. Or maybe it knocked something together. Either way, by the morning, he wasn’t hungover and he had a proposal for how to grow IndieBound, including simplifying the logistics of buying online and integrating it with social media. Plus: “I wanted it to be better-looking,” he says.
   
   Bookshop has exceeded my expectations—and then some. I do think the most underrated thing about it is this: it is the most pleasant place to browse books online. I will be curious to see if they can replicate that experience for ebooks.
   

4. Librarians say a Missouri House proposal to eliminate library funding would have ‘devastating’ ripple effects
   
   Missouri’s Republican-led House voted to cut all funding for libraries in its version of the state’s annual budget, an unprecedented move that has angered librarians and patrons across the state who rely on the facilities for everything from books to educational programming and internet access.

   
   We must burn down this village in order to save it.
   

5. The Best Audio Storytelling: 2022
   
   The Best Audio Storytelling is a new collection of thirteen of the year’s best nonfiction audio stories from podcasters, radio journalists, authors, independent creators, and more. The stories within this anthology transport you to a lush garden, to life in prison, to a cruise ship bar, and even into outer space.

   
   Just a terrific idea, and I have pre-ordered. No surprise is it from Pushkin.
   

6. First-Quarter Bestsellers (paywalled)

   
   Prince Harry’s memoir has sold more than a million copies since its January release, making it the #1 book in 2023 so far. But the year is still young, and Colleen Hoover and Dav Pilkey are hot on Harry’s heels.

   
   A supremely uninteresting line-up.
   

7. The Ruling That Threatens the Future of Libraries

   
   By collecting and digitizing such a huge collection of works and lending them out online, the Internet Archive is making an incredible social contribution.

   
   Some interesting points in this, but this really sounds like a task for the Library of Congress.
   

8. Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists

   
   While Schultz freely admits that staff members contribute to planning the announcements and creating promotional elements like social-media graphics, he said, “these lists come from him. This is not a staff-led exercise, and I think if it was, it wouldn’t pass the smell test. These lists wouldn’t be as salient or get as much traction if it wasn’t coming from him directly.”

   
   This is the magazine equivalent of a scientific journal publishing a null result paper (which is good!). Until we get it straight from 44, though, people are going to wonder.
   

9. The Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf: 110 essential Los Angeles books

   
   How did we approach this daunting task? By asking writers with deep ties to L.A. to name and explain their favorites. Ninety-five of them responded with more than 500 titles, which we culled and annotated with capsule and quotes.

   
   There are lists, and then there are lists. A beautiful, extensive, whole-ass effort here.
   

10. Selling to the Strand: A Conversation with Larry Campbell

    
    People throw them out, people die. To be honest with you, the best books I’ve found are from people who died. Older people have the best shit. They have all this stuff and then the family doesn’t want it, so they throw it out.

    
    I’ve always wondered about this ecosystem. It is both totally is and definitely is not what I imagined.

    Check out First Edition on Twitter, on Substack, and on Instagram.
    
    And if you have a moment to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, please and thank you!

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/finally-a-book-that-cannot-be-banned