magpie 61/ the wrath of goodreads
I do most of my reading via digital channels, with a deep allegiance to Singapore’s National Library Board via the Libby app. Unsurprisingly, the libby app’s recommendation algorithm tries to feed me more of what I’ve already read, which makes accidental collisions with beautiful books harder than ever.
Like many I go to online sources for recommendations and curation. One place I’ve sworn never to do again is suffer the Wrath of goodreads (sans paywall). I would, however, ABSOLUTELY read a deep ethnography of goodreads power users (who are these people?!?!).
I’ve noticed the bookshelf “SEO-ification” of jacket blurbs and other flowery praise authors give each other, transforming every cover into an action-movie trailer of nonsense adjectives.
The volume of books being published has become enormous at the same time as many legacy publications have stopped publishing stand-alone book sections; the reviews they do publish have lost much of their cultural impact. So instead of harvesting effusive quotes from professional book reviewers, authors solicit them from celebrities and other writers, usually long before publication. A phalanx of powerful, insightful, vivid blurbs now means the difference between success and failure.
Gift link, and if that doesn’t work, sans paywall.
When’s the last time you spent any time thinking about the geopolitics of the global Donkey industry? Yeah me neither, and it is fascinating. via Jeremy Goldkorn
A nice feature about a comedian cutting his own path - in this case doing house shows and eschewing comedy clubs.
Algorithmic feeds are a Twiddler’s playground (Cory Doctorow)