Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
What are the Best-Selling Books by Black Authors?
Book sales data is hard to get (unless you pay a lot for it). The proxy data we get in the form of best-seller lists usually top out at 10-20 titles per. And as we have noted in our weekly tracking of what books make these lists, they are stunningly, consistently, and intractable very, very non-diverse. So what books beyond the tops of the charts are selling? And where do you start to see some different voices charting? I have said, I think both here and on various BR podcasts, that publishing has made great strides towards inclusivity. There is still much to be done. But publishing cannot control which books readers buy ultimately (trust me, they would if they could). The buy side of the buy-sell equation isn’t keeping up. Tools like this might help us see where some movement might be happening and give some books that are getting some traction a little extra juice.
Close Reading is For Everyone
Wonderful appreciation, defense, advocation, and demonstration of the virtues and and pleasures of close reading by Dan Sinykin in Defector. It is deep, nerdy, satisfying, and dare I say inspirational. There are many things to lament about the state of book discourse, especially in the social media age, but maybe detailed explication could trend someday. I will watch your TikTok’s about Homeric narration, whoever you are out there thinking about doing them. I will watch.
