Cancellation comes for everyone, eventually. — Kids are like sponges, soaking up their environment as they learn what it means to be a person in society. Depending on how bookish the kid in question is, a large part of that development comes directly from books. When I was a kid, I passively absorbed a lot of…

Yes, these are actually good and readable books. — “Kids these days, with their TikTok and their BookTok and their BookStagram and their ReBlogs and what have you!!” says a curmudgeonly reader, somewhere. “So many readers getting reading ideas from BookTok recommendations!!” OK, yes, it was me. I’m the curmudgeonly reader. I’m a fan of discovering books by happenchance…

These border on permanent if you don’t catch them. — Just yesterday, my colleagues and I went out for a night of drinking. I went home after two beers around 10 pm. The next day, I trooped into the office feeling rough. Unfairly, my young coworker Emily was the epitome of sunshine. “How late did you stay out last night?”…

It’s the new “toxic positivity.” — “I’m exhausted from doing emotional labor,” my friend Sarah complained to me. “He just expects me to be his therapist, cleaner, and sex buddy.” She was dating a real tool named Erik. But she was wrong. What she was doing wasn’t emotional labor. She was being a good girlfriend, but…

I’m talking about the short, bubbly, creative woman, and the tall, chiseled, grumpy man. — “I’m so short and bubbly! He’s so tall and grumpy!” If you could sum up the main character dynamics in a single line from 75% of the romance novels I’ve read lately, it would be that. I don’t know if I missed the memo but it seems like nearly every…

Publishing industry: when will you learn that’s not what readers want? — As influencers grow older and less marketable, especially the ones who became famous for their looks rather than their talent, many seek to make a more lasting impact on the world than a fleeting and easily-forgotten Instagram post. And so, they turn to writing “books.” I’m putting books in scare…

It’s simple, but genius. — Nobody realizes it. Everyone thinks James Clear or Tim Ferris is the best expert on productivity. But the best place to look for productivity techniques that work is actually enormous corporations with tons of employees. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and their ilk have the resources, time, and sheer numbers of…

And what to recommend instead — One of the greatest things about being alive today is that there’s a wide range of books to suit every taste. Publishing houses are finally accepting more authors from diverse backgrounds and the rise in self-publishing means there are other ways to get awesome books in your hands than through…