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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 30 Best Novels of the Last 30 Years
The L.A. Times is marking its 30th Festival of Books by curating a list of the 30 best fiction books of the last 30 years, “culled from a survey of authors, editors, critics, scholars and other experts in the field.” Ambitious is the word used to describe the 30th ranked book on the list (Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell), and that adjective can be used to describe most of the books on this list, especially the book in the #1 spot, which is 2666 Roberto Bolaño. I’ve seen 2666 on so many book lists of greats and while I’m certainly not in the mood to read about mass numbers of “brutally murdered women,” it doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to understand why it’s on all of these lists. It’s long, dizzyingly layered, and by all accounts seems to accomplish what it sets out to do, which is a challenging feat when you have that many storylines. I guess what I’m saying is, there are no big surprises here. The most commercial book on the list is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, recommended by Marie Lu, but the overall leaning is très literary fiction.
A Teeny-Tiny Folding e-Reader
An e-reader that’s smaller than a paperback when folded? What is this, bookish Blade Runner? This tiny e-reader was announced by China’s Readmoo, which is said to have spent nine years developing an electronic paper screen that can handle up to 200K bends. The mooInk V apparently joins a small number of devices using a technology that can produce over 50,000 shades of high resolution color. This device sounds like it would be highly appealing to Kindle readers looking for something significantly less cumbersome to travel with or hold, and of course the feeling of “opening” a book is elusive to ebook readers. The big, unanswered questions are when it will become available and how much it will cost, and with an ongoing trade war with China, sticker shock feels inevitable if it even makes it to the U.S.
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Oh, George
Every time The Winds of Winter is mentioned on the internet, a fairy loses its wings. I’m amazed people still waste their time badgering George R.R. Martin, but when he appeared in a photo with a genetically engineered dire wolf (no joke, but plenty of criticism) you could practically hear the impatient A Song of Ice and Fire hordes yell a united “WTF more distractions?!” and dust off their pitchforks. The fans were mad and Martin responded to the outcry by calling the whole situation the curse of his life. I don’t know. If I were Martin, at this point, I would’ve seen the “We got real dire wolves before Winds of Winter” comment coming a mile away. Apparently, he’s still working on the final book in the series, and he pointedly commented that his other endeavors and his progress on the book are not connected.
What Other Romance Book Adaptations Should Amazon Do Next?
With successful romance book adaptations in their bag, like Red, White, and Royal Blue (2023) and Maxton Hall (2024), Amazon Prime Video might now be looking to adapt more romance books. But what should they pick next? That is the question. There are millions of romance books out there, so it might be rather hard to know what to showcase on the small screen next. Let’s help them out, alright? Here are the romance books Amazon should adapt next.
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