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:
bullet The big idea: do we need to dismantle the literary canon?—it’s a perennial question, that almost perennially renders interesting ideas, like this one.
bullet Why you should read horror (even if it scares you)—I’m not sure I’m convinced, but…
bullet AI Writing Proves The Author Is Very Much Alive
bullet How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the TBR Pile—something I need to read every time I start to feel bad about my mountain
bullet The great Gail Simone asked “What was the first novel that you felt taught you something meaningful?”—the resulting Twitter thread is great to read #ThisBookTaughtMeSomething
bullet When Counting Gets You Nowhere—for a guy who spends time every month thinking about numbers, it may seem strange for me to say how much I liked this post. I’m still going to talk about numbers because it scratches a particular mental itch, but Bookforager is right about what counts.
bullet My Ideal Summer Reading Program—Similar point, just as good.
bullet 5 Ways to Spend More Time Reading—most of these ideas aren’t new to the topic, but Amanja’s spin is good enough to read. #5 is so, so, true.

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
bullet Let Me Tell You a Story Podcast 140: The Irresponsible Reader—features this guy doing his best to sound interesting

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Robert B. Parker’s Bad Influence by Alison Gaylin—Gaylin takes the baton from Lupica for this series and has Sunny protect a social media influencer. I’ll hopefully have something posted about this soon.
bullet 100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings—an entertaining and informative tour guide through afterlifes. I had a lot of fun with it.
bullet George the Bannana: Book Two by Elliott Linker—George and Elliot return to take on the bad guys from Book One. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the local 9-year-old creator handles this follow-up.
bullet The Worst We Can Find: MST3K, RiffTrax, and the History of Heckling at the Movies by Dale Sherman—I cannot read that title without singing “la! la! la!” Looks good.
bullet Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis—a satire about reality TV, billionaire-funded space travel and environmentalism, and maybe more.
bullet On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane—a novel about First Contact and contemporary American culture
bullet Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me by Aisha Harris—pop culture and cultural critique
If you want to hear a sound of happiness...Turn the page of a book. - Piotry Kowalczyk