E-book subscription service Oyster to close
The Netflix-esque service for books announced it would be shutting down over the next few months, with much of its staff moving to Google Play Books. Oyster had previously offered a million titles to users for $9.95 a month. The departure of Oyster from the subscription field leaves Scribd as the only unlimited ebooks service for readers.
Print books still going strong among booklovers in 2015
Speaking of ebooks, who remembers the apocalypse people claimed would crash into the print book industry once everyone moved towards reading on tablets and phones? The New York Times looked into the state of ebook versus print sales in a column this week, and rather unsurprisingly, ebook sales have gone down while print has stayed steady. Personally, if an ebook is only one or two dollars less than the print copy (which has happened and shocked me), I’d rather just have the physical book to add to my collection. It looks like many other readers might feel the same way.
Maisie Williams to lead The Forest of Hands and Teeth adaptation
Depending on who you ask, another book/comic adaptation about zombies might not be exciting news, but The Forest of Hands and Teeth might just change minds. Carrie Ryan’s YA novel is centered around a girl who must survivors of zombie attacks through the woods surrounding their village and out into the world. So what, one might ask? What if I told you Maisie Williams was that girl?
Junot Diaz talks about the craft of writing and the work of fighting racism
Junot Diaz’ essay criticizing MFA programs’ lack of diversity may have lit a metaphorical fire under the book community, but he acknowledges the constant, consistent efforts still needed to address racism:
the pushback is extreme. And I think that we’re in another moment where historically, periodically issues of race and the kind of panorama in which we live becomes more clear and comes into focus. But we also historically have a great habit of allowing these moments to dissipate; for the landscape to become murky; for the conversation to slip away. Our amnesia around this and our ability to change the subject is really unmatched.
ICYMI
- Denzel Washington to adapt 10 August Wilson plays in a deal with HBO
- A history of regency romance and the women who helped build the genre
