News & Notes is a weekly Saturday post featuring book- and publishing-related news, links to interesting articles and opinion pieces, and other cool stuff
Bookish News
- Maryland Lawyers Say E-book Law Is a Defense of Public Libraries. The American Association of Publishers contends that the Copyright Act preempts the Maryland law. At issue is whether publishers can continue charging public libraries very high prices for ebooks. (Publishers Weekly)
- Print sales are expected to fall in 2022, while book buyers should expect the price of books to increase, due in large part to supply chain issues, higher paper and printing costs, and increased onshoring of printing (to a limited number of printers.) Whether those issues will also drive up e-book prices remains to be seen. Both articles also note the effect of TikTok in driving backlist sales. (Publishers Weekly)
- Book Ban Busters: The Network of Suburban Moms Working To Stop Book Bans (Book Riot)
- The 2022 Audie Award finalist lists are out! The Audies are awarded to the best audiobooks in a number of genres, as well as awards for best narrator (male and female), best multinarrator recording, best drama, and so on. The winners will be announced March 4, 2022.
Worth Reading/Viewing
- My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life. This guest essay by author Viet Thanh Nguyen (in the New York Times) talks about why we shouldn’t ban any books.
- How Are Libraries Recognizing Black History Month? (Jessica Pryde, Book Riot)
- An uplifting pandemic drama? How Station Eleven pulled off the impossible (The Guardian)
- Well-dressed and distressed: why sad young women are the latest book cover trend (The Guardian)
- Book Sales, Promotion, and Donations Don’t Solve Censorship. That requires political action: speaking up, voting, and running for school board. (Kelly Jensen, Book Riot)
- How is this for heartwarming? Author Kate DiCamillo posted the following on Twitter:
Books, Movies, and TV
- The teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (above) was released last week. The movie is “inspired by Gris Grimly’s illustrated edition of the book.” (Book Riot)
- Judging a Book By Its Covers: The Foundation Trilogy (The Avocado) If you are at all into comparing different covers of the same book, take a look at this extensive collection of covers for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. (Yes, I know there were later Foundation books, but it was originally conceived and written as a trilogy.) Good covers (Michael Whelan), bad covers (red goo?!!) and truly bizarre covers (one German edition, among others.)
- ‘Good Omens’: Cast Confirmed For Season 2 Of Neil Gaiman’s Amazon Fantasy Series (Deadline)
Lists
- 15 Things You May Not Know About J. R. R. Tolkien (Book Riot)
- Queer Retellings Coming Out in 2022 (Book Riot)
Bookish Quote
Lark
I love that Katie DiCamillo story with the little boy in the grocery store. How cute is that?
Lark recently posted…The Precipice by Paul Doiron
Lark_Bookwyrm
It’s so sweet! I know exactly how that little boy feels, too.
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits
Lots of good stuff here. I saw that Kate DiCamillo story on Twitter, and it was my much-needed feel-good story of the day (or week, to be honest).
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Linkity for Lovebirds
Lark_Bookwyrm
I know; it was a highlight of my week, too.