Saturday Miscellany—6/4/22

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
As libraries drop late fees, long-overdue books return — as do former patrons: Minnesota libraries went fine-free, then waited to see: Would patrons hoard all the books?—Most libraries around here went fine-free a couple of years ago. I wonder if their results were similar.
How Amazon surrendered in its war on bookshops
How the Publishing World Is Muscling In on Hollywood Deals: For Authors, “The Future Is Multihyphenate”
Why are crime writers so weird?: As well as entertaining, the best detective stories deal with life and death, good and evil and the quest for truth
What Makes a Great, or Terrible, Audiobook Performance? The case for doing less.
Witty & Sarcastic Bookclub gets to my favorite in their 2022 looks at Fantasy Sub-genres Fantasy Focus: Urban Fantasy with great interviews featuring:
Matthew Samuels
C. Thomas Lafollette
Peter Hartog
Satyros Phil Brucato
Jamie Jackson
Speaking of Interviews, Beth Tabler also had a great Interview with Author Rachel Aaron this week.
INDIE PUBLISHERS, INDIE AUTHORS, INDIE BOOKSHOP, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?—Jackie’s Reading Corner talks about a couple of indie presses near and dear to her heart (I’ve spent a little money on both presses, I understand her devotion)
What I’ve learnt in over 10 years of book blogging—Jo Linsdell shares some wisom acuumlated over a decade. Much of which I should appropriate.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
The Botanist by M. W. Craven—I’m going to go into this one blind, the only reason I know the title is so that I could make sure I ordered the right book. So I can’t tell you anything beyond the fact that one of the best Crime Novels of 2022 came out this week.
The Balance Of Guilt by Simon Hall—Somehow Hall’s intrepid reporter exposes a scandal while being sedated in a hospital bed. Can’t wait to find out how that happened.