What I've Been Reading

After taking a few weeks off in June, I found that I was simply…not reading the various articles and essays about publishing that I come across daily, and often writing about here. I think AI has been the tipping point—the barrage of issues, complications, prophesies, histories, and outrage have overwhelmed me. I joked that I have decided to stop having opinions, and this one simple trick relaxed me more than anything else I’ve tried. Who needs massage when you can simply not know or care?

I am not constitutionally capable nor truly apathetic enough to continue this opinion-strike for long. And it’s not just not the having of opinions; it’s also deciding not to express them that calms me.

So I’m reading again.

Below you won’t find anything about AI companies buying up rare books to rip apart and scan (it’s unlikely these books are, indeed, rare, or even scarce, and longtime readers of this newsletter are well aware that print fetishism has never been my thing. It’s extremely likel…