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The Weekly Wrap: August 16-22

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The Weekly Wrap: August 16-22

Amazon and AI

This week 404 Media reported tracing a shipment of old and rare books to an Amazon facility where they were scanned to train AI and then pulped. This follows a trend of booksellers receiving large orders for old and rare books for AI training purposes, a trend many are resisting.

What disturbed me is that this was another instance of Amazon aggressively advancing AI in the publishing industry. It is already the leading source of AI-generated works, allowing those creating these works to bypass conventional publishing while creating works imitative of human authors, often derived from their works.

Basically, Amazon is public enemy number one of human authors.

I have argued previously that AI-generated works ought have no place in the world of publishing. I’ll leave it to others to argue this case elsewhere. It is robbing authors of intellectual property. It tilts the playing field when works that take a week to generate compete with works taking months or years to write. Then, it also cast aspersions on all authors, especially debut writers. It displaces market share from human authors. If allowed into bookstores, it will also displace shelf space. And now, they are destroying old books.

The only way to deal with this is the marketplace. But this means supporting human authors through other vendors, since Amazon is also a huge revenue source for authors and publishers. Otherwise, Amazon will keep blithely going its way. And it is likely that the pollution of AI-generated works will spread. And I believe we will all be the poorer.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Related to my comments above, Jennifer Szalai reviews Jill Lepore’s new The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State in “A Government for the People, but Not by People.” She explores what happens when a liberal democracy is replaced by automation and machines.

Artificial intelligence offers the prospect of instant knowledge. In “Artificial Intelligence: Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant Knowledge” Ann Lawrence-Mathers explores an ancient magical manuscript promising instant knowledge. It was not a good thing.

Authoritarian movements proclaim the weaknesses of classic liberalism. However, “The Unexpected Persistence of John Rawls” argues for the importance of Rawls’ works for articulating strengths of the liberal tradition.

Many commentators have noted that boys and young men are in trouble in our society. Joseph E. Davis, in “Nowhere Boys,” explores the underlying reasons for this crisis. This summarizes his argument:

“The boy crisis, therefore, is not a crisis of boys, but of the absence that is at the heart of our culture of autonomy. Parents and schools offer boys a language of limitlessness and push them along a trajectory of achievement in which many can find no resonance or inspiration, no stable and meaningful goals to guide and motivate their action. Being “all you can be” rings hollow when it is unclear what is important or necessary for you to actually be.”

In terms of the tilt of the earth, we have one more month of summer in the northern hemisphere. “Six Books You’ll Want to Read Outdoors” reminds us of the unique delights of outdoor reading, at least when it isn’t oppressively hot, stormy, or rainy.

Quote of the Week

Crime writer Megan Abbott was born August 21, 1971. Whether or not we are into crime fiction, many of us have at least one thing in common with her:


“I come from a family of readers. Our house smelled of book.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Abbott’s quote suggests why so many of us like bookstores, especially second hand bookstores. They smell like home.

PBS will be running a documentary on the life of poet Mary Oliver on Tuesday August 25, 9 pm ET. From responses to posting this on social media, there are a lot of Mary Oliver lovers out there. I’m among them. I also share something in common with Mary Oliver. She was born in and grew up in Maple Heights, Ohio. I lived there from 1981 to 1990. However, we never crossed paths.

I’m reading two delightful memoirs, worlds apart in many ways. One is by Muriel Elmer, describing her child as a missionary kid including the loss of her father, boarding school nightmares, and a wondrous display of fireflies one night. The other is from fellow Youngstowner John DeMain, who recently stepped down as director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He recounts his heroes from summer stock entrepreneur John Kenley to Leonard Bernstein, as well as the staging of a full length Porgy and Bess, which won a Grammy award in 1975. Look for reviews soon.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Marty Solomon with Reed Dent, The Gospel of Being Human

Tuesday: Carmen Joy Imes, Becoming God’s Family

Wednesday: A.J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All

Thursday: John L. DeMain, Working With My Heroes

Friday: Jeffrey A. Lockwood, The Good Quit

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for August 16-22.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

The Weekly Wrap: June 1-7

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woman in white crew neck t shirt in a bookstore wrapping books
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

The Weekly Wrap: June 1-7

Whither, or Wither, Amazon Books?

On Friday, Publisher’s Weekly, announced “Amazon Cuts Jobs in Book Division.” They say they are cutting fewer than 100 roles, which doesn’t tell us how many people are losing their jobs. This includes layoffs at their Kindle and Goodreads units. This is after the company saw a 30% increase in the sales of Kindles following release of a new generation of devices. There were no comments about the performance of Goodreads.

Remember when Amazon was a bookseller? One associated Amazon with books. You could find just about anything and get it delivered quickly. While that is still largely true, more of the book sales depend on third party sellers using the platform.

Remember when Goodreads was the online place you and your friends talked about the books you were reading? Sure one can still do this, but Amazon uses the platform for marketing and has made few improvements. Meanwhile newcomers, as well as the venerable LibraryThing, create more opportunities for reader interaction as well as offering features not available on Goodreads.

Amazon says it is consolidating roles with other divisions, probably for operating efficiency. But they are cutting the number of people working with books at a time when both Barnes & Noble and the indie bookstore market are growing. It seems the focus is on efficiency and technology.

Amazon is still the behemoth when it comes to bookselling and publishers and other booksellers must reckon with it. The truth is, though, no one is too big to fail. If Amazon relies only on algorithms and AI to sell us books and provide us online spaces to talk about them, they just might be surprised how many prefer other places to buy books and other platforms to talk about them. But perhaps books aren’t that interesting when you can launch celebrities into space for less than 15 minutes for big bucks and notoriety.

Five Articles Worth Reading

Imagine if your job provided a research stipend that covered the cost of books. Deb Olin Unferth discovered that this is a very mixed blessing. “The Stipend” is also a fascinating exploration of our propensity as bibliophiles to acquire books far in excess of our capacity to read them.

The Atlantic has begun a new series involving writers retracing the steps of their favorite authors. In the first of these, Caity Weaver is “An Innocent Abroad in Mark Twain’s Paris.” She both recounts Twains travels and her own journey, complete with a number of photographs.

Rivers are defining features in our geography. Towns are built along them and many industries depend on them. In a new book, Robert Macfarlane explores Is a River Alive? In “Britain’s Premier Nature Writer Cries Us a River” one of my favorite reviewers, Jennifer Szalai gives us her take on the book.

Thomas Mann was born 150 years ago yesterday, on June 6, 1875. At one time, Mann embrace militaristic nationalism but eventually repudiated Nazi fascism, becoming an advocate of liberal democracy, even while persisting in conservative values. Ed Simon traces “The Political Journey of Thomas Mann.” The concluding quote by Mann is sobering: “Let me tell you the whole truth. If ever fascism should come to America, it will come in the name of freedom.”

Avoiding the use of adverbs is common advice in writing programs. In “Defending Adverbs Exuberantly if Conditionally,” Lincoln Michel gives a qualified and tongue-in-cheek defense for the use of the lowly adverb.

Quote of the Week

Fittingly(!), Thomas Mann provides our quote this week. Would that the nations, and indeed all of us would learn this:

“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Two new books highlighted in this Publisher’s Weekly newsletter focus on “Business Lessons from Taylor Swift.” With a net worth of $1.5 billion, there might be some things others in the billionaire class might learn from her, if they are willing to learn from a woman. I was struck with this observation: “The book underscores her philosophy that success and joy is found in the giving itself, not just quantifiable monetary success.”

As it happens, I’m reading a biography of Emily Dickinson. I’m struck by her choice of seclusion and decision not to publish her work during her life. That doesn’t mean she didn’t get critical appraisal. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who played a founding role in The Atlantic, was her literary critic, pointing out awkward constructions while respecting her decision not to publish. For this, he was rewarded with the opportunity to co-edit the first collection of her work published posthumously.

This year marks a year of The Weekly Wrap. I would love to say it has been a huge success but that is still largely aspirational. But my aim is to try to curate news and articles that enrich the reading life of other readers as they have mine. I’d love to hear your thoughts, both what you’ve liked, and what you would like in this weekly literary journey. And please forward this to your friends if you like what I’m doing. Since I do this pro bono (and I have reasons for that), I won’t make more money. But it is fun to reach more people with one’s ideas! And thanks for reading!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Wallace Stegner, The Spectator Bird

Tuesday: Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

Wednesday: Georges Simenon, The Saint Fiacre Affair

Thursday: Scott Cairns, Love’s Immensity

Friday: Dr. Lisa Compton and Taylor Patterson, Skills for Safeguarding

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for June 1-7, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Counterfeit Books on Amazon

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liturgy-of-the-ordinary

Did you buy this book from a third-party seller on Amazon? It is very possible you purchased a counterfeit copy, and a rather poor knock-off at that. You also robbed the book’s publisher of revenues and the book’s author of her royalties.

The story about this broke today on Christianity Today. The book is Liturgy of the Ordinary, a book by Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren on encountering God in the ordinary of everyday life–from making beds to peanut butter sandwiches to hunting for lost car keys. It was Christianity Today’s Book of the Year in 2018. The publisher was InterVarsity Press [in the interests of full disclosure, I work for IVP’s parent organization, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA]. The publisher revealed today that they have discovered that at least 15,000 copies of the book were sold on the Amazon site by third-party sellers that were counterfeits. The retail value of these sales would have been $240,000. I do not know the details of the author’s contract, but suspect this represents a loss in the neighborhood of $20,000 in royalties. Only after Christianity Today contacted Amazon in connection with this story were the third-party sellers of Warren’s book removed from the Amazon site.

The New York Times reported on this practice on June 23, 2019. They reported a hands off attitude by Amazon. While Amazon warns against the sale of counterfeit products on their site, they do not screen third-party sellers apart from responding to complaints. A seller that sells enough copies, which appears to be what happened with Warren’s book, becomes the default seller, taking over the “buy” button. When I first read about this in the NYT article, it just confirmed my low estimate of Amazon’s business ethics. I’ve long observed the practices of paid reviews, read reports of treatment of workers in their warehouses, and the pressures they’ve placed on vendors. When it came to print publications and other physical products, I’ve long ago decided to buy only from brick and mortar vendors.

Today it became personal. Amazon allowed my friend to be stolen from, and not just for a few bucks or a few copies of her book. Tish Harrison Warren was a former colleague in campus ministry, and following publication of her book she offered a workshop for some of those I minister with. She is an gifted and thoughtful writer and speaker. Amazon claimed in the NYT article that counterfeiting wasn’t a big problem. I think my friend would beg to differ.

One of the problems with counterfeits is that while you probably saved some money, you not only unknowingly participated in theft from my friend and her publisher, you likely received an inferior product. Warren posted a list of defects found in counterfeits of her book, and separately posted images of these defective copies including differences in the colors on the cover. Here are some of the specific issues she noted:

-Annotation numbers throughout the book being in full size font, not superscript. This is not consistent—the copy I’m looking at has a large 1 on page 18, followed by superscript 2 and 3 later on the page.

-Condensing of words—the best example of this is Greg Jao’s name on the endorsements page. It looks like GregJao without the space. I can also see it on the subtitle at the start of chapter 2 on page 25.

-Incorrect running headers: The left page should always have the chapter title, the right page should always have the chapter subtitle. The copy I’m looking at has the previous chapter’s subtitle on the left page (p. 26)

-Missing character glyphs—the best example of this is on page 74 in the chapter title. The Y in “my” (Fighting with My Husband) is missing the lower part of the letter

-Darker section breaks (the little graphics throughout the chapters) are darker, like nearly black. In one of our copies, they should be a pale gray.

Warren recommends these steps if you are one of those who suspects they purchased a counterfeit:

1. If you believe you have received a counterfeit edition, please return the book to Amazon and ask for full credit.

2. Please note the seller from whom you purchased the counterfeit edition and send that information to AuthenticEditions@ivpress.com. We are attempting to stop the sales of these editions through Amazon’s marketplace re-sellers.

3. Please rate the seller experience low on Amazon. This will help decrease the visibility of the re-sellers who have made counterfeit editions available.

4. If you desire to ensure you are buying authentic editions, visit the following URL: www.ivpress.com/real-liturgy. This will allow you to buy from InterVarsity Press at 40% off plus free shipping for all addresses in the U.S.

5. If Amazon refuses to grant a full refund for the purchase of the counterfeit edition, please email AuthenticEditions@ivpress.com and IVP will be in touch with you on a special price for us to replace the counterfeit editions at the best possible price.

You might look for similar defects and pursue similar remedies with other counterfeits. Good luck! Just another instance where the old axiom caveat emptor comes into play. If you are not buying from Amazon itself, read the ratings, report poor service and counterfeits. Amazon relies on you to “drain the swamp” (do you like the idea of doing Amazon’s work for them?).

I personally love the fact that the publisher is offering the book at such a discount, which is available for anyone who wants to purchase the book. Here is the Bob on Books review, if you want to learn more about the book before you buy, helping the author retrieve lost royalties (don’t use the publisher link in the review).

As I mentioned, I’ve long ago decided to buy books and other physical products from local vendors. Sure, I will shop for good prices like anyone, but I want to sustain the businesses committed to my community, booksellers and others. Can you tell I’m pretty fed up with Amazon? It seems to me that the only thing they respond to is customer behavior and perhaps well-publicized negative publicity, and perhaps not even that. As someone who not only reviews but loves books, appreciates the people who write them (including a number of friends) and the skilled professionals who publish, distribute and sell them through legitimate channels, I am against anyone who undermines the flourishing of the book trade. I’m against those who undermine local commerce. Allowing the unscrupulous to steal from my friends is just about the last straw.

How about you?

Why I Don’t Use Amazon Links in Reviews

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Edit Post ‹ Bob on Books — WordPress com

Screenshot of editing page for my most recent review, showing weblink to publisher.

If you’ve clicked on a book title in one of my reviews, you will discover that in nearly all cases, it will take you to a publisher’s web page for the book. Some may wonder, why don’t I use an Amazon link?

I did at one time until a bookseller friend whose work I value greatly challenged me that I was helping to dig the grave of his business. Since I want to see him, and other brick and mortar booksellers stay in business, I paid attention. He pointed out that I was essentially endorsing Amazon as “my bookseller of choice” by directing traffic to their website.

I hadn’t thought about that. Amazon links to books almost always come up at the top of a search for a book, even when you enter a publisher name. I was using those links as a matter of convenience. It is more challenging to find publisher links to a book, particularly for backlist books. And there are books I review sometimes that are out of print. In this case, I use a link to ABE Books, which provides connections to a number of booksellers who have the book.

So here are the reasons I don’t link to Amazon:

  • Do you want one bookseller “to rule them all and in the darkness bind them?”
  • I want to leave the choice of where you buy your books, and the format in which you buy them, to you.
  • I want to support publishers, who often sell the books online, adding to their revenues at a time where they face great pressure.
  • Publishers often have helpful marketing information about their books–video trailers, readers guides, author information, and more.
  • I want to support local booksellers whose presence enriches our community. Most also have an online presence, allowing you to order books and have them shipped to you, or available to pick up at the store.
  • Some of you may want to get it at your local library. I don’t want Amazon to replace libraries, which provide so many services, particularly for those who are financially strapped.

Finally, because I write about books and bookselling, I do not want to have a financial relationship with Amazon as an Amazon Associate. Yes, I actually could make some pocket change if someone uses a link on my page to buy a book from Amazon. But I don’t want to for all the reasons above.

I’ve concluded that for all the convenience Amazon offers, we are sacrificing a rich, local culture, as well as the subtler delights of relationships with librarians, publishers, and booksellers, as well as the serendipitous delight of finding what you weren’t, as well as were, looking for on the shelves of a local book store. That is not something I want to lose.

 

Goodreads Recent Changes

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Goodreads so you finishedMany of you who are book lovers use Goodreads to catalog your books, track what your friends are reading, and read reviews of books you might be interested in. There are currently 55 million Goodreads members and 1.5 billion books added to the site. I’ve been on Goodreads since 2011, and it was the “gateway drug” that got me into book reviewing and blogging.

This is kind of an update on some of the recent changes, at least the ones that I have noticed. One that started turning up in my email inbox recently was that whenever I finished a book Goodreads sends an email that shows the book, my rating, and links to my review. Not shown on the screen capture above is that it also allows me to see any friends who are reading the book, their reviews, and the reviews of other Goodreads members. It allows me to go to the Goodreads author page, even dead ones (there is one for Gerard Manley Hopkins which I can follow). It also allows me to like and comment on friends activity, and even to post a question about the book. What I discovered is that about the time Goodreads introduced this feature, I saw an uptick in likes and comments on my reviewed books, even ones I reviewed in the past. This seems like a good change that makes Goodreads more interactive.

A second change that  Goodreads has begun is “Goodreads Deals” emails and “Sponsored Books” on the updates feed (on the phone app). The “deals” update is just for e-books but surprisingly does provide options (depending on the book) for Google books, Apple iBooks, Nook, and Kobo, as well as Kindle (Goodreads is owned by Amazon). It is interesting that these deals are on e-books but there seems to be no similar approach with print media even though e-books have been waning in popularity. Still, I give Goodreads credit for not promoting only Amazon.

Not so with “Sponsored Books.” Here you have options for purchasing the book in whatever format you are interested in, but only from Amazon. There are also inserts of books that are “new” or “popular” which also direct one to the Amazon site.  So far, this only appears on updates on the Goodreads App, not on the website. It appears that you can indicate you are not interested in a particular “sponsored” book, but not these others, which are interspersed with friends’ updates. Rarely are any of these of interest to me. For some reason, who is reading the book often catches my eye and makes it of interest. The “recommendations” function is better, even if it often recommends books I’ve read but haven’t logged on Goodreads.

One thing with both of these changes is that they drive online purchasing, which of course is the interest of the online book seller behind this site. At least the page for each book on Goodreads offers the option of looking for the books in stores like Barnes and Noble, or through the IndieBound site at independent booksellers. One wonders if Goodreads will continue to do this in the future or direct potential buyers to their parent company more and more. This may be the point where those of us who think brick and mortar stores and local businesses are a cultural good should close our accounts. I hope it doesn’t come to that because there is so much I like about Goodreads (and, yes, I also am on LibraryThing).

One of the features I really like on the phone app is the ability to scan a book and add it to one or more of your shelves. It uses your phone’s camera and I just discovered that it not only works by scanning bar codes, but even by scanning the cover of the book. It will pop up options for your book which you can then add to your shelves. The cover scan worked on every book (a limited sample) I tested it on. This is much better than typing in a title and searching a list for your book. I only log books as I read them, but I could imagine going through my whole library in a relatively short period of time if I wanted to do this.

These are not the only changes on Goodreads. I’d be interested in what changes others who use Goodreads have seen and what you like or don’t like about them.

 

Amazon Charts

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Amazon Charts

Screenshot of Amazon Charts page for week of May 14, 2017

Did you get a new type of email from Amazon last week? I did, with a link to the new Amazon Charts website. For years we have been able to see real-time sales rank information on any book on Amazon’s site as well as hourly updates of print and e-book best sellers.

Now Amazon is taking on The New York Times and other venerable best seller lists with a weekly best seller list of fiction and non-fiction books. With a twist.

The twist is that Amazon breaks this into “most read” and “most sold.” “Most read” uses all the information it collects from users of its Kindle e-readers and those using Audible to listen to audio books. “Most sold” includes print, e-books, and audio purchases through its marketplace.

On the one hand, this utilizes the immense amount of data Amazon is constantly collecting to compile its own bestseller lists. At the same time, it is a list that only reflects those using Amazon to buy and read or listen to books. By contrast, The New York Times compiles its lists from a sampling (according to its own secret formula) of independent and chain booksellers and only tells us what people are buying. Truthfully each is selective.

One thing that Amazon does is provide these lists side by side on its “Best Sellers & More” page that includes its Charts lists side by side with The New York Times best sellers. Granted, the books on the Times list also are linked to Amazon’s site. This page also provides editors picks, hourly updates of print, Kindle, and Audible best sellers, and a list of 100 books to read in a lifetime, curated by Amazon’s editors.

Back to Amazon Charts. For each book on the top 20 “most read” and “most sold” lists, you can see reviews, purchase the book, and read a preview. On some books, such as Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Wings and Ruin we have a comment like “unputdownable.” There are also indications of whether the books are eligible for “Prime Reading” (a program where Prime Members can read the book for free) or “Kindle Unlimited” programs.

Obviously, this is designed to drive sales on the Amazon site for those wanting to buy the latest best sellers. Why not? I am not usually that interested in best sellers, unless it is something I want to review, in which case I want to get the book and review it while it is trending. (So such lists do have uses beyond driving sales).

My wife does something online that suggests another use for Amazon Charts. She uses online sites to “pre-shop” so she can decide whether she wants to buy a particular item at a local store. I think Amazon Charts is a great way to pre-shop for books that you might want to browse at a local store and purchase. But then, I think brick and mortar stores are a cultural good that ought to be preserved. Whether or not you agree with my book buying preferences, “Charts” offers another site to learn about the latest and best in books.