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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
The Bookshop.org Partnerships Everyone’s Talking About
Bookshop.org, the bookselling platform designed to benefit independent bookstores, has made headlines this week with a couple of partnerships that are poised to make it easier to buy books from indies. A partnership between Bookshop.org and Draft2Digital, a digital publishing and distribution platform for independent authors and publishers, will allow readers to buy self-published ebooks from independent booksellers, while an affiliate partnership with Spotify will allow Spotify Premium users to purchase physical books through Bookshop.org. Spotify is simultaneously introducing a Page Match feature (which Android Authority caught on to late last month, ahead of Spotify’s announcement) that will make it easier to sync your reading if you’re switching between audiobook, physical book, and/or ebook. This is good news for readers looking for more ways to support independent bookstores and for Bookshop.org, which will gain more exposure through Spotify and an expanded catalog through Draft2Digital.
Is This Really Goodbye, Mass Market Paperback?
I have so many fond memories of thumbing through mass market paperbacks in my earlier reading days. But Elizabeth A. Harris’s reporting on the decline of this once-ubiquitous format reminded me that it’s been decades since I picked one up. Harris writes about how sales of these books have declined as the popularity of ebooks, audiobooks, and physical books (for the ‘gram!) have risen. MMPs were so compact and travel-friendly, there’s no way I could have maintained the expansive library I curated in my high school locker and backpack without them back in the ’90s. But I no doubt would have replaced those beloved treasures with a Kindle and a well-stocked audiobook library on my smartphone if I’d had access to that tech. Yet still I mourn. Read about the history of the MMP and its extinction here.
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Bridgerton Author Isn’t Letting This Political Moment Pass
I am allergic to online comments about keeping politics out of the conversation and content, and I am forever perplexed by people who think politics should be kept out of books and reading. Julia Quinn, the author of the Bridgerton series, is also not having it. “I don’t care anymore if you don’t want to hear my political opinions,” Quinn said in a recent Instagram Reel. “You can leave.” Vanity Fair’s Savannah Walsh followed up with Julia Quinn about political advocacy, including ICE agents infiltrating Minnesota, as well as abortion and vaccine advocacy. Read the interview with Quinn, which also heavily discusses the books and show and how writing is taking a backseat to activism for the author in this moment.
How You Can Be a Literary Activist
If you’re also looking for activism opportunities, firstly, we have a whole write-up about how you can help support Minneapolis, and you can also catch up on the freedom to read bills currently under consideration in four U.S. states. In the words of Kelly Jensen, “While these bills are only as good as they are enforced, and they mainly address only one aspect under the umbrella of book censorship, they represent significant progress in slowing the flood of book censorship nationwide.”
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