Using your eyes to read books? That’s so 2015, according to a new report that says audiobooks are becoming more and more popular while e-book sales have started to slide. [More]
literature
Creator Of Uncanny ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Text Generator Doesn’t See Robots Taking Writers’ Jobs
By 2.13.15
Amid the Fifty Shades of Grey movie hooplah maybe you’ve found yourself grumbling, “I could’ve written that book.” Sure, maybe, but it’s not just you — there’s a text generator out there right now that does a pretty damn near perfect impersonation of the series. Wait — robots are doing literature (and I use that term lightly) now? ARE WE ALL DOOMED? We chatted with the programmer behind the new Fifty Shades of Grey text generator tool to find out. [More]
British Library Putting Hundreds Of Important Literary Resources Online
By 5.16.14
If you’ve read every word in print by Jane Austen, or pored over Oscar Wilde’s plays until your eyeballs felt like they’d been open since the 16th century, you’ll probably be pretty excited over the British Library’s new site featuring hundreds of manuscripts, papers and other documents from England’s brightest literary minds. [More]
Readers Dig Dirty Books, Boost Publishing Industry
By 5.2.10
If any industry needs a little help to get business to be booming, it’s publishing. And aid is coming from an unlikely source — erotic books could be the savior of the swiftly sinking business of book publishing, MSNBC’s Brian Alexander reports. [More]
New Ideas For Kids' Books About The Lean Times Ahead
By 10.13.08
Last week, Slate published a list of children’s books about poverty, unemployment, shoe-eating, dust bowls, depressions, and recessions. From a late-19th century series called The Five Little Peppers through to 2007’s How To Steal a Dog, the list captures over 100 years of poverty-level slice of life–what we might call the Plight of the Raggedy Children.
