The 1910 Edison film of Frankenstein has been restored!

Read and watch here.  Fascinating!

The Books That Made Dracula

Stoker's 1890 application for membership in the London Library

"The London Library today unveiled a fascinating discovery that sheds new light on how Dracula was researched and written. We've found 26 books that are almost certainly the original copies that Bram Stoker used to help research his enduring classic."

Read the full article here.  (And watch the video there too!)  

Free Will Has Become Dangerous

Governments and corporations will soon know you better than you know yourself. Belief in the idea of ‘free will’ has become dangerous.

Read "The Myth of Freedom" by Yuval Noah Harari here.

"A Secret too Terrible to Know"

"As history confirms, people will change their minds about almost anything, from which god they worship to how they style their hair. But when it comes to existential judgments, human beings in general have an unfalteringly good opinion of themselves and their condition in this world and are steadfastly confident they are not a collection of self-conscious nothings."

From Thomas Ligotti's new "Introduction" to the Penguin edition of The Conspiracy against the Human Race.  Read the full Introduction here.

The Pleasure of a Used Bookstore in an Airport

Yes, an airport.  Specifically the Milwaukee airport.  I have fond memories of browsing there, and of the books that I found, since the mid-1980s.  I would even stop in at the airport when driving up to Milwaukee so that I could visit the bookstore. Back then it was a secondary location for a huge multi-floored bookstore in a dilapidated downtown building (since condemned and destroyed).  Now only the airport location remains.  Here's a link to a news story about it, including some pictures that bring such memories.

Why books are the only form of physical media whose sales are growing

"The media and entertainment industry has a long history of embracing disruptive innovations, from the printing press to the personal computer. But the rapid shift from physical to digital over the past decade or so has been truly revolutionary. In general, physical media has suffered a great deal. Printed newspapers and magazines have migrated to online versions, while DVDs and CDs have been supplanted by film- and music-streaming services. But the oldest form of physical media is actually holding up quite well."

Full story here.  

Publishers are paying writers a pittance

Publishers are paying writers a pittance, say bestselling authors

Philip Pullman, Antony Beevor and Sally Gardner are calling on publishers to increase payments to authors, after a survey of more than 5,500 professional writers revealed a dramatic fall in the number able to make a living from their work. 

Full article at this link.