Tootfinder

Bans of and challenges to reading material in K-12 schools have been on the rise since 2021,
when the American Library Association and PEN America noticed a sharp uptick in the number of books on the no-no list.
The classics of the banned-book genre remained
— “Brave New World,” “Animal Farm,”“Beloved”
— but those were joined by an escalating list of picture books of two-dad families, young-adult novels tackling race or suicide, graphic novels in which teens make inf…

Why not just ban all the books?
Keyword searches for "justice" and "pride" drive what ideas are being kept from kids.

Granta and the Commonwealth Foundation say they can't determine yet if AI was used to write a prize-winning short story after critics pointed to signs of AI use (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may…

Granta says it will stop publishing short story contest winners or join publishing partnerships it doesn't control after AI use allegations against a winner (Ella Creamer/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/20/granta-ma…

"Ebooks Are Books. The Law Should Say So." @ Katina Magazine
https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/future-of-work/2026/ebooks-are-books-the-law-should-say-so
"By treating

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/116603070039160133
Actually trying to find the source for this, it appears to be from one of those “1,000 things to do on the Web” books from the Y2K era.
I have some books coming to see if it’s in any one of them.
If you search online for this (in a real search engine, not Google) you will find a lot of random Reddit threads that all say it’s an “ad” despite it clearly not being an ad and all images of it are always this specific angled image, just with different crops.
Trying to find the truth where it’s from so stay tuned.

What's worse than books written with temperatures expressed in degrees Fahrenheit?
Books written with temperatures expressed in "degrees", and you have to guess the scale from context.

Granta says it will stop publishing short story contest winners or join publishing partnerships it doesn't control after AI use allegations against a winner (Ella Creamer/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jun/20/granta-ma…

Granta stops publishing short story award winners over AI controversy
Literary magazine will no longer engage in ‘external publishing partnerships’ after Commonwealth prize furore

"Sometimes #love looks like knowing when to stay quiet."
Dr Srividya Sivakumar - Marsala and Marginalia
#shortstories #books

At Third Place Books while my kid practices with his "Midwest Emo" band up the hill.
Two SF books and two non-fiction books, for a total of four antifascist, decolonizing books about how to live in a society that is trying to kill you and the people you care about

Weeded the front flower beds in the hot sun while listening to the latest Murderbot installment from Martha Wells. Lost a little blood during an engagement with several thornless honeylocusts that had hacked their programming and in fact had plenty of thorns (don’t get me started). #murderbot #books #gardening

Granta and the Commonwealth Foundation say they can't determine yet if AI was used to write a prize-winning short story after critics pointed to signs of AI use (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may…

polbooks: Political books network (2004)
A network of books about U.S. politics published close to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, and sold by Amazon.com. Edges between books represent frequent copurchasing of those books by the same buyers. The network was compiled by V. Krebs and is unpublished.
This network has 105 nodes and 441 edges.
Tags: Informational, Relatedness, Unweighted, Metadata

For my weekend reading, I’ve started @…’s new book The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.
(I haven’t actually read any of his books before so I’m looking forward to finishing this and maybe picking up Enshittification next.)

The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNational Indie Bestseller"[Doctorow] resembles the great rock critics of an earlier era, a high-tech Greil Marcus or even...

Slovenia interestingly has given France a run for it's money.
Let's see where we end up. Thanks all!
https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/116426694104346350
Ruth_Mottram - Trying to narrow down summer holiday options. Family travel by train to a self catering holiday destination where swimming, cycling hiking and climbing is possible (as is sitting by the water with a pile of books) lots of fresh air and nature a must. Cities less important. What would you choose (feel free to comment why and be more specific on destination!):

It’s been a while… but how about a new #OwnYourWeb newsletter issue, going out tomorrow? 😊
https://matthiasott.com/newsletter

Own Your Web
Own Your Web is a newsletter by Matthias Ott about designing, building, creating, and publishing for and on the Web. Every other week, I send out an exclusive email full of actionable insights, best practices, hacks, links, books, tools, and other high-quality insights I found or explored. Whether you want to get started with your own personal website or level up as a designer, developer, or independent creator working with the ever-changing material of the Web, this little email is for you. �…

Dad Books Are a Dying Breed (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/dad-books-are-a-dying-breed-d9a28b49
http://www.memeorandum.com/260518/p74#a260518p74

the last bookstore left on book row (besides the strand & forbidden planet) #nyc #books

This book sounds great. There are many contexts where lying is illegal. Government forms, stock holders, congress, but politicians can lie to the public. This book outlines ways we can target areas where we can make lying to the public illegal and how other countries have done it already.

Book Bites: A NSW Premier's Reading Challenge Podcast For Students
Australian authors read the first chapter of books featured on the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge book lists. Episodes span the 3–4, 5–6, 7–9 and 9Plus lists...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.co…

The FreeBSD Project home page no longer has a link to FAQ.
The main Documentation menu includes <https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/fdp-primer/>, which very few people will want. The ninety-nine-page FreeBSD Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors can be found at the…

How to read more #books
(quit social media 😉)
https://scotto.me/blog/2026-07-12-how-to-read-more-books/

How to read more books | scotto.me
My method for reading more

We found this old 1949 #science #book on our shelves; it's a very general thing, with a mix of different articles; but it's pretty fascinating seeing the stuff from then. I mentioned the Agene flour treatement, which I'd not heard of before; but the Palaeomagnetism is fascinating because i…

“The way I often read non-fiction — snatches of twenty pages here, twenty pages there, putting a book down for two months (or two years) at a time — is not conducive to *finishing* books, but I do find it conducive to thinking. Rich texts can take a while to sink in, so I’ll jump to another book while I let the first one marinate.”
https://

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PositiveVibrations
Al Brown and Inner Force:
🎵 Dub of Books
#AlBrownandInnerForce
https://open.spotify.com/track/6rGUrC3pYRfefHv6ry5sGO

Yeah, I'm a blogger. But I've written books, too. Did you know?
https://www.bobmuellerwriter.com/did-you-know-im-a-writer/

Did You Know I'm A Writer? – Bob Mueller
Reflecting on the writing I've done over the years and the people who know about it.

Just started reading The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl Book Five) by Matt Dinniman and it has the funniest dedication I gave ever eead: “Thanks everyone for all your continued support. A special thanks to the dude who sent nudes. It’s not necessary, but I appreciate it. I hope you get the help you need.” #bookstodon

For me this age of AI is the time we should appreciate less polished handwritten texts for their authenticity. I see this happening during selection of job applications.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026…

How AI is changing language
As allegations of LLM use rock the literary and media worlds, linguists explain what really distinguishes human and machine writing, while novelists including Jennifer Egan and Jeanette Winterson reflect on the future of fiction in an age of ChatGPT

When We’re in Charge is a no-bullshit guide for the next generation of leaders on how to show up differently,
break the cycle of bad leadership,
and navigate the changing demands of those in power
and the evolving expectations people have of their workplace.
Based on Amanda Litman’s experience as a founder and executive (and mom of two who’s trying desperately to have a life outside of work),
and informed by conversations with more than 100 next-gen leaders acr…

When We're in Charge (Paperback)
Featured on Forbes, Morning Joe, Teen Vogue, Pod Save America , and more From Amanda Litman, cofounder of Run for Something, “a refreshingly candid,…

Lovely, thoughtful piece. I also struggle with my book collection. @… https://social.ewenbell.com/objects/0671eb0d-4b1c-4519-80c3-a094e001e…

Ewen Bell 📸 (@ewen@social.ewenbell.com)
New post on the blog today. Books or not to Books? https://ewenbell.com/blog/What_Comes_After_Books "In a world where wisdom and knowledge is changing faster than ever, the idea of physical pages...

6 Biggest Takeaways From Dallas Cowboys' Shortened Mandatory Minicamp https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/6-biggest-takeaways-from-dallas-cowboys-shortened-mandatory-minicamp

@… https://bookshop.org/p/books/icelandic-pop-then-today-tomorrow-next-week-arnar-eggert-thoroddsen/5b3b…

What you lose when you stop reading physical books - Big Think https://bigthink.com/books/reading-physical-books/

An NYT reporter finds AI-generated, unauthorized biographies of herself and other journalists on Amazon, where AI-made books with elusive "authors" proliferate (Kashmir Hill/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/…

Someone Used A.I. to Write an Unauthorized Biography of Me. I Don’t Recommend Reading It.
Someone used A.I. to write my biography. Thousands more of those books are polluting Amazon. Who is behind all this drivel?

polbooks: Political books network (2004)
A network of books about U.S. politics published close to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, and sold by Amazon.com. Edges between books represent frequent copurchasing of those books by the same buyers. The network was compiled by V. Krebs and is unpublished.
This network has 105 nodes and 441 edges.
Tags: Informational, Relatedness, Unweighted, Metadata

This does put me in mind of the time that #JuliaChild (she of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” fame) was publicly outed as an agent of #DeltaGreen (qv,

The French Chef and Lovecraft: Or How I Discovered a Historical Writer had Used the Cthulhu Mythos in her Book.
I have a forty-five minute drive each way from my home to work, and my car radio doesn’t work. Fortunately the CD player does, so I often raid the Estacada Public Library for books on CD to listen …

“I saw the entirety of Wendigoons Christianity iceberg, how did I not know the Bible contained multiple books?”
— @…

/usr/bin/cat
is fucking complicated.
(yeah, okay, it's not like I was actually **expecting** to see what the K&R books would lead you to believe is there:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

There is currently a bundle of books from one of my favorite author of fantasy novels, Mercedes Lackey on Humble Bundle. For my queer folks out there, she is one of the few authors that cast an openly gay man as a main character in her books, in the early 90s. The novels are great and her universe is amazing. If you read on your phone or e-reader and are in search of great fantasy novels, you can pick that all up here:

When Silicon Valley says it is
‘‘moving fast and breaking things,’’
the world interprets the chaos as a necessary cost of innovation.
Gil Duršn reveals something far more sinister:
a decades-long campaign to replace elected governments with corporate rule.
https://www.

Questo libro è uno spasso, si menano di brutto.
"Capitalismo monopolistico di Stato in URSS"
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4310951M/Capitalismo_monopolistico_di_Stato_in_URSS
(Comprato alla Calusca a Milano.)

Capitalismo monopolistico di Stato in URSS by Giovanni Graziani | Open Library
Capitalismo monopolistico di Stato in URSS by Giovanni Graziani, Paolo Giussani, 1977, Lavoro liberato edition, in Italian

#silentSunday
Broadtailed hummingbird. May 2026

An NYT reporter finds AI-generated, unauthorized biographies of herself and other journalists on Amazon, where AI-made books with elusive "authors" proliferate (Kashmir Hill/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/…

Someone Used A.I. to Write an Unauthorized Biography of Me. I Don’t Recommend Reading It.
Someone used A.I. to write my biography. Thousands more of those books are polluting Amazon. Who is behind all this drivel?

Dear #kobo, i appreciate the "series" view of My #Books. But could you...put them in order maybe?
The publish by date and series order are known on the backend...

Not EVERY work of culture (books, arts, music, theater, film) has to be remade to represent EVERY marginalized community.
It seems to me 't'would be much better to more heavily promote new works by marginalized creatives and / or covering marginalized communities as subject matter.
For example, I'm seeing a lot more new LBGTQ and BIPOC science fiction and fantasy than I used to. Some, awful, but a lot of it excellent.

"Children’s Picture Book About Nature and Climate Change Inspires Young Environmental Action"
#Books #nature #Climate

Children’s Picture Book About Nature and Climate Change Inspires Young Environmental Action | Happy Eco News
Too Much Quiet! by Kottie Christie-Blick is a children’s picture book about nature and climate change that follows a young student as she discovers environmental change in her school garden.

So, https://mastodon.social/@JenniferSmith345 is an odd bot. I don’t think it’s even a LLM behind it, the replies are just too weird.
Profile looks like it was taken from someone real…

Jennifer Bennett (@JenniferSmith345@mastodon.social)
20 Posts, 1 Following, 1 Follower · My name is Jessica, I currently live in Los Angeles, California, in the western United States. I graduated from Stanford University with dual master’s degrees in Business Administration and Clinical Psychology. I enjoy exploring the unknown, and I love cycling, yoga, golf, traveling, and reading books on finance and economics. I am currently the CEO of a publicly traded jewelry company. My favorite animal is the dog. I detest conversations with ulterior mo…

Finally re-started reading House Of Leaves.
Still wondering why it's not getting more attention, with all the liminal space trend in recent years
Probably because it's virtually impossible to create an audio book and movie from it?
#books #reading

Kash Patel built a slush fund inside the FBI to hand out fat cash bonuses the men who do his
(and by extension, Todd Blanche’s and Donald Trump’s) dirty work.
This is what the rot consuming our Republic looks like up close.
There’s a particular tell in the way a regime decays,
and Kash Patel just gave us the textbook example.
When the people in charge of the law start paying cash -- out of view of oversight and largely off the books,
to the people who br…

Kash Patel's FBI Criminals
The Payback Squad Is A Stain On The Bureau

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MiddayShow
Boards of Canada:
🎵 The Word Becomes Flesh
#BoardsofCanada
https://azteclabubufornicationrecords.bandcamp.com/track/boards-of-canada-the-books-the-word-becomes-flesh-i-didnt-know-that
https://open.spotify.com/track/2zKrt7YUpsKWEQagjS4rOQ

Philip Reeve discusses 25 years of MORTAL ENGINES! Forbidden Planet TV
#books

The nice thing when reading old #books is, you sometimes find things the owners left in them.
Today I found a very thin chocolate wrapping. It was from "Victor Schmidt & Söhne" (Victor Schmidt & Sons). A sweets company founded ~1850 in Vienna. The wrapping may be waiting for ~120-130yrs in the book (because the book is that old) and it told me something about the previo…

Senate Judiciary schedules confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/06/16/congress/blanche-hearing-on-the-books-00963812
http://www.memeorandum.com/260616/p114#a260616p114

"Are Libraries the Hidden Book Market?" @ New Books Network
https://newbooksnetwork.com/are-libraries-the-hidden-book-market-with-erin-cox-of-words-money
"What if the most powerful tool in your book marketing strateg…

Ischia is Burning: The Novel I Have Been Writing for Thirty-Six Years
Most books are written. A few are excavated. Ischia is Burning is a book I excavated from a steel filing cabinet in a Manhattan apartment, where it had been sitting for more than three decades inside a folder marked Ischia, in the form of a screenplay I wrote at twenty-five years old in the second year of an MFA program at Columbia.

Ischia is Burning: The Novel I Have Been Writing for Thirty-Six Years | David Boles, Blogs
Most books are written. A few are excavated. Ischia is Burning is a book I excavated from a steel filing cabinet in a Manhattan apartment, where it had been sitting for more than three decades insi…

Pride Kitty :ablobpride1:⁠:blobcatreachrev:

Interesting to compare the author Neal Stephenson's profiles on X/twitter vs. Bluesky.
He has 89,4 K followers on X, where he still posts, but just under 10 K on Bluesky, where he doesn't post at all.
He has many fans on the fediverse who discuss his books, but he is not here.

Hachette, Elsevier, Cengage Learning, and author Scott Turow sue Google for allegedly using millions of copyrighted books and articles to build AI models (A.J. Katz/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/tech/hachette-scott-turow-g…

Hachette, Scott Turow Sue Google for Using Books to Train AI
Hachette, Elsevier, Cengage and author Scott Turow sued Google, alleging the company used copyrighted books to train its Gemini AI models.

The unspeakable has happened. I've installed Aeon, the immutable Gnome by OpenSuse. Although KDE and WM's (dwm, mango) are at the core of my nerdiism, that ThinkPad deserved something else. Can't have an opinion without actually using it.
First impressions: clean, no fluff. Very good security (TPM encryption et al). And Suse was my first distro many years ago (the 2 books and 6 CD's boxes). Network shares very smooth, tomorrow some extensions. And forget about my usual …

polbooks: Political books network (2004)
A network of books about U.S. politics published close to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, and sold by Amazon.com. Edges between books represent frequent copurchasing of those books by the same buyers. The network was compiled by V. Krebs and is unpublished.
This network has 105 nodes and 441 edges.
Tags: Informational, Relatedness, Unweighted, Metadata

"I think when the history books are written about all of this and all the tell all memoirs, after you know who kicks the bucket, it's going to be revealed that all of these broken men have caused a ripple effect by their uniting and trying to keep their secrets covered up when I think we know a lot of them are in the closet, a lot of them are probably bisexual"
Pete Hegseth inadvertently revealed MAGA's secrets with masculinity initiative: analyst - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/pete-hegseth-2677245107/

94.8 kWh solar generation today, another new record (barely edging out 92.2 on the 1st).
We're coming up on the longest day of the year and I'm curious if I'll ever manage to squeeze over 100. That would be a nice number for the books.

Physical books should come with their own RFID bookmarks.

from my link log —
The inside story of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, by those who knew him.
https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/inside-story-terry-pratchett-discworld-those-knew-him-4373899
saved 2026-04-29

The inside story of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, by those who knew him
The beloved author would have turned 78 this year - here, his friends and collaborators reminisce on his life and work

➡️ Open Library
#bookmarks

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
A New York Times BestsellerA Wall Street Journal BestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2020A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceShortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the YearA New Statesman Book to ReadFrom economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, a groundbreaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America's working class

Been up cleaning at Room 23 and returning library books so I took a good look at this bookshelf
#photo #photography #bookshelf

This is a really exciting list of new books
And both Ann Leckie and Martha Wells have entries! Always here for more Radch and Murderbot.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2524887-the-best-new-science-fiction-books-of-may-2026/

The best new science fiction books of May 2026
New science fiction from big names including Ann Leckie, Alan Moore and Martha Wells are just some of the exciting crop of titles out this month

Hachette, Elsevier, Cengage Learning, and author Scott Turow sue Google for allegedly using millions of copyrighted books and articles to build AI models (A.J. Katz/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/tech/hachette-scott-turow-g…

Hachette, Scott Turow Sue Google for Using Books to Train AI
Hachette, Elsevier, Cengage and author Scott Turow sued Google, alleging the company used copyrighted books to train its Gemini AI models.

lol at page 350 the plot starts? omg
#books

What a wonderful discovery! #AI #hallucination #writingcommunity

Last week, New Christendom Press hosted its annual conference in Ogden, Utah, called
"The War For Normal."
Featuring Christian nationalist speakers such as
Stephen Wolfe and Andrew Isker,
the conference generated controversy when it was reported that a vendor was being allowed to sell
Nazi and "pro-white" books at the event.
New Christendom Press founders Brian Sauvé and Eric Conn addressed the controversy on their "The King's …

Brian Sauvé Is Fine With Nazism, But Draws The Line At Paganism
Christian nationalist pastor Brian Sauvé had no problem with a vendor selling pro-Nazi and "pro-white" content at his recent conference, but he did have to draw the line at promoting paganism.

gonna be vibing on this for a while, from "ah!merica," wee little collection of allen ginsberg's naropa lectures on william blake. (guitar pick for scale.) #books #poetry

How AI is changing language
https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/jul/04/future-of-fiction-next-great-novel-ai-language-chat-gpt?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Rezension zu "Platform Power and Libraries" (Christine F. Smith 2025, https://litwinbooks.com/books/platform-power-and-libraries/ &

bookcrossing: BookCrossing ratings (2005)
Two bipartite networks representing people and the books they have interacted with, from the BookCrossing website. Nodes represent users and books, and an edge connects a user to a book they have interacted with. The file book_implicit is unweighted; edge weights in book_ratings give the rating a user assigned to a book.
This network has 445801 nodes and 1149739 edges.
Tags: Economic, Preferences, Unweighted, Weighted

“No one can write a 20-page essay without AI!”
[staring forlorn at the hundreds of books on my shelves]

Enjoy some 50 miniature works of art from “Bookplates”, published in 1954. A bookplate, or book label, also known as ex-libris (Latin for “from the books of…”), is a small decorative, often personalized label pasted into the inside front cover to specify its owner. https://maraid.co.uk/blog/2015/07/book

"Lava is a #library and #creative hub for young people right in the hearth of #Stockholm"

Addicted to anxiety by Owen O'Kane
"many people are addicted to the process of #anxiety ... because it promises safety, less risk and protection."
#wellbeing #bookstodon
…

Addicted to Anxiety
A better place to buy your books. Support independent journalism with everything you buy. Free UK P&P on online orders over £25

thoroughly dug peter richardson's "brand new beat," rich archivally-informed history of rolling stone's 1st 10 years, how it grew from the bay area scene before blanding out in nyc, essentially from the perspective of their less glamorous but far hipper co-founder ralph j. gleason. #books

douban: Douban friendship network (2009)
A friendship network among users on Douban.com, a Chinese website providing recommendations for books, music, and movies.
This network has 154908 nodes and 327162 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/douban…

The idea of a suspension of the constitution had been introduced,
by the Constitution of 22 Frimaire Year 8.
Article 14 of the Charte of 1814 granted the sovereign the power to
"make the regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws and the security of the State"
Because of the vagueness of the formula, Chateaubriand observed
"that it is possible that one fine morning the whole Charte will be forfeited for the benefit of Art…

Will human minds still be special in an age of AI?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/03/will-human-minds-still-be-special-in-an-age-of-ai?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

"The Publishing Supply Chain Wasn’t Built for Open Access Books. Can a Nonprofit Platform Help?" @ Katina Magazine
https://katinamagazine.org/content/article/resource-reviews/2026/publishing-supply-chain-oa-books-n…

Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier, and Cengage, alongside novelist Scott Turow, file a class-action copyright lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg (Alexandra Alter/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/books/publisher…

Five Publishers and Scott Turow Sue Meta and Mark Zuckerberg
The class-action lawsuit accuses the tech giant and its founder and chief executive of infringing on authors’ copyrights.

so if AI is so amazing, why don’t articles and books written with it have huge “proudly made with AI” banners and stickers on it
we all know why

"Visualizing all books of the world in ISBN-Space"
https://phiresky.github.io/blog/2025/visualizing-all-books-in-isbn-space/
"Libraries have been trying to collect humanity’s knowledge almost since the invention of writing. In the digit…

polbooks: Political books network (2004)
A network of books about U.S. politics published close to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, and sold by Amazon.com. Edges between books represent frequent copurchasing of those books by the same buyers. The network was compiled by V. Krebs and is unpublished.
This network has 105 nodes and 441 edges.
Tags: Informational, Relatedness, Unweighted, Metadata

There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative.
Yiddish has the word shlimazl, which basically means a perpetually unlucky person.
German has the word Backpfeifengesicht, which roughly means a face that is badly in need of a fist.
And then there’s the Japanese word tsundoku, which perfectly describes the state of my apartment.
It means buying books and letting them pile up unread.
The word dates back to the very beginning of modern Japan, the M…

“Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language
There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative and at the same time impossible to fully translate. Yiddish has the word shlimazl, which basically means a perpetually unlucky person. German has the word Backpfeifengesicht, which roughly means a face that is badly in need of a fist.

Ex-Paramount president Jeff Shell settles with a gambler who accused him of leaking confidential information and sought $150M for off-the-books crisis PR work (Gene Maddaus/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/jeff-shell-cipriani-litigation-set…

Jeff Shell Settles Suit With Gambler Whom He Accused of 'Shakedown'
Jeff Shell has settled litigation with R.J. Cipriani, a Las Vegas gambler who accused him of failing to pay for off-the-books PR work.

"A surfeit of sources: An annotated bibliography of data management books for librarians"
https://doi.org/10.29173/iq1181
"Over the past decade, more than thirty books have been published which seek to provide data management foundational and continuing education materials for an acade…

Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier, and Cengage, alongside novelist Scott Turow, file a class-action copyright lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg (Alexandra Alter/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/books/publisher…

Five Publishers and Scott Turow Sue Meta and Mark Zuckerberg
The class-action lawsuit accuses the tech giant and its founder and chief executive of infringing on authors’ copyrights.

douban: Douban friendship network (2009)
A friendship network among users on Douban.com, a Chinese website providing recommendations for books, music, and movies.
This network has 154908 nodes and 327162 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/douban…

"AI and Digital Leadership: Transforming Libraries, Archives, and Museums for the Future": Interview-Podcast mit der Autorin: https://newbooksnetwork.com/ai-and-digital-leadership
Das Buch "explores how galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) are na…

For publishers, pirated audiobooks made with AI on YouTube are a growing issue: removal is cumbersome, and some are hiring tech companies to take them down (Alexandra Alter/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/books/a

Publishing’s Latest Piracy Problem: Audiobooks on YouTube
Illegal, synthetically narrated copies of “The Hunger Games,” hit self-help books and everything in between are increasingly common on the platform.

Even though most Republicans have quietly moved on,
JD Vance is still hoping to get enough juice out of Charlie Kirk’s death to sell books.
In early June, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt from Vance’s latest memoir,
“Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,”
which is officially released tomorrow.
In it, Vance credits Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk — who is even more hated than her dead husband — for convincing his wife, Usha Vance, to have a fourth child…

JD Vance's sad book tour shows why his 2028 hopes are fading - Salon.com
In "Communion," the vice president assumes people still care about Charlie Kirk

"A Framework for Books and AI in the Public Interest: How libraries could create a thoughtful and ethical interface between their shelves and artificial intelligence"
https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/a-framework-for-books-and-ai/

How The Fast and the Furious franchise, which grossed $7B across 10 films, tells the story of Hollywood, pioneering diverse casting and technical innovations (Hua Hsu/New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-the-fast…

How “The Fast and the Furious” Tells the Story of Hollywood
Hua Hsu on the book “Fast and Furious Franchising,” by Dan Hassler-Forest, which defends the series as a pioneer of its craft.

bookcrossing: BookCrossing ratings (2005)
Two bipartite networks representing people and the books they have interacted with, from the BookCrossing website. Nodes represent users and books, and an edge connects a user to a book they have interacted with. The file book_implicit is unweighted; edge weights in book_ratings give the rating a user assigned to a book.
This network has 445801 nodes and 1149739 edges.
Tags: Economic, Preferences, Unweighted, Weighted