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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.
He Coined the Word of the Decade. And Wrote a Book About It.
“Enshittification” doesn’t hide what it means. And a few years ago, Cory Doctorow coined it to describe, well, the “enshittification” of the digital world. Pay to play games. Scammy apps and websites. And in his new book, he expands the idea into the material world If I may be so bold, it is a term that is extraordinarily useful to describe our political and cultural moment as well. Even if you don’t read the book, this NYT profile is worth reading.
A Guardian and a Thief is Becoming the It Book of the Fall
I thought it might be the new Lockwood. Or the new Flournoy. Or the new Desai. But it is looking like Megan Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief has the inside track on being the book of the fall. An Oprah pick and finalist spots for the National Book Award and Kirkus Prizes are about as much as you can ask of a literary title. It was a late pick-up by one Rebecca Schinsky in our 2025 Fantasy Book League and could well be the difference. I am happy for everyone involved. No for real, I am. At least I included it in our It Books of October showdown.
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Lit Hub Turns 10 and Gifts The Internet with 58 Book Recommendations
Surving a decade as an independent media company, especially in books, is no mean feat. And to celebrate their 70th (one internet year is the equivalent of seven real years), Lit Hub solicited a bunch of literary folks for books they would recommend. They range from familar classics like Anna Karenina, to on point surely-before-the-Nobel-announcement-submission of Lazlo Kraznahhorkai. Worth a browse.
Wait, is This the OPPOSITE of “Enshittification?”
LibraryThing didn’t like AI bots scraping their site and ingesting all those user reviews. So they built a custom human authentication pop-up that is just delightful.