Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has set up a Facebook book club that has already attracted over 120,000 members in three days. The club will discuss a new title every two weeks and feature books that “emphasize learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies.” The first book discussed will be The End of Power by Moisés Naím. (Bookseller)
A survey conducted by the PEN American Center has found that a majority of writers around the world feel “that mass [government] surveillance is significantly damaging free expression and the free flow of information.” (New York Times)
“I think a lot of the time the book is talked about, like, ‘Oh here’s another Brooklyn novel by a guy with glasses.’” At the Guardian, Emily Witt interviews poet and novelist Ben Lerner about his second novel, 10:04, and the ways in which he writes about families, politics, insecurities, and other “contingent stuff.”
Is “readability” a myth? Noah Berlatsky examines the subjectivity of the “difficult” book over at the Atlantic.
“The very freedom granted by audio books—inviting the eyes to wander, and then the mind—may make them less intellectually interchangeable with printed ones than some readers would like.” Studies show that the audio book is the least engaging format in which to experience and retain a book’s material. (Fast Company)
At Good Magazine, Rosie Spinks suggests the future of public libraries lies in libraries’ ability to be much more than spaces for book collections, and instead act as “community hubs” that provide much-needed space and amenities to diverse groups of people.
Get excited for the year ahead and browse the Millions’s 2015 book preview list, which includes information about ninety-one titles that will be released in the first half of the year.
