Some Audiobooks Are Outselling Hardcovers
In a year when print book sales have slipped 1% to 679 million copies through early December, according to Circana BookScan, audiobooks continue to carve out territory that once belonged exclusively to hardcovers, and in several notable cases this year, the audio versions have outright outsold their physical counterparts.
S.A. Cosby’s southern crime novel “King of Ashes” moved more copies a … ⌘ Read more
Global Hotel Groups Bet on Customer Loyalty To Beat Online and AI Agents
The world’s largest hotel chains are aggressively pushing customers toward direct bookings as they brace for a future where AI “agents” could reshape how travelers find and reserve rooms. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Wyndham have all expanded their loyalty programs and perks in recent months, aiming to reduce their reliance on onli … ⌘ Read more
John Carreyou and Other Authors Bring New Lawsuit Against Six Major AI Companies
A group of authors led by John Carreyrou has filed a new lawsuit against Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity, accusing the AI firms of training models on pirated copies of their books. TechCrunch reports: If this sounds familiar, it’s because another set of authors already filed a class action suit … ⌘ Read more
Is the Dictionary Done For?
In the late 1980s, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary sat on the New York Times best-seller list for 155 consecutive weeks and eventually sold 57 million copies, a figure believed to be second only to the Bible in the United States – but those days are thoroughly gone. Stefan Fatsis’s new book “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary” chronicles what Louis Menand describes in The New Yorker … ⌘ Read more
Spotify Says ‘Anti-Copyright Extremists’ Scraped Its Library
A group of activists has scraped Spotify’s entire library, accessing 256 million rows of track metadata and 86 million audio files totaling roughly 300TB of data. The metadata has been released via Anna’s Archive, a search engine for “shadow libraries” that previously focused on books.
Spotify described the activists as “anti-copyright extremists … ⌘ Read more
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Once a bookworm, always a bookworm.
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@shinyoukai@neko.laidback.moe I think I never watched it. In any case, enjoy reading your books.
Got a nice conspiracy theory for you:
https://mastodon.social/@mcc/115670290552252848
Actually wait I just thought about this and realized that the precise timing of the ACTUAL GitHub seed bank, by which I mean the Arctic Code Vault, on 2020-02-02, makes it more or less a perfect snapshot of pre-Copilot GitHub. Also precisely timed before we all got brain damage from COVID. This is the only remaining archive of source code by people with a fully working sense of smell
(Bonus points because the Arctic World Archive is located in Svaldbard and that’s the name of the AI in Stacey Kade’s “Cold Eternity”.)
New Kindle Feature Uses AI To Answer Questions About Books - And Authors Can’t Opt Out
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon has quietly added a new AI feature to its Kindle iOS app – a feature that “lets you ask questions about the book you’re reading and receive spoiler-free answers,” according to an Amazon announcement.
The company says the feature, which is called Ask this Book … ⌘ Read more
Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct’s Self-Published Ebooks
Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. Fro … ⌘ Read more
**Water leak in Louvre damages hundreds of books **
The leak in the Egyptian department comes just weeks after a jewellery heist that put the museum’s security infrastructure under scrutiny. ⌘ Read more
#ptpol #debates #presidenciais
0 - Há uma pergunta mas #LMM diz que responde a tudo mas primeiro tem outro tema obrigatório: a acusação de #Cotrim Figueiredo há 15 dias de LMM ter feito pressões, pede a Cotrim que concretize - Cotrim não pode ou consegue, tenta atacar LMM noutro tema com um book review, a dizer que LMM vai lançar um livro que é pior que o livro que Cotrim lançou - isto não se inventa. De certa forma isto influencia o debate porque quando o jornalista pode então fazer perguntas já não fala do que queria falar, e em vez disso pergunta o que distingue as candidaturas deles e voto útil e essas coisas. Cotrim responde que ele é o mais energético ou qq coisa dessas, mas em prática só diz que vai jantar com jovens mais vezes que LLM. 12 minutos de debate e ainda não se disse nada - mas só menos mostra bem que entre estes dois há claramente um menos sério que outro. Cotrim critica LMM estar no Conselho de Estado há tantos anos e Portugal está cheio de problemas - pena que LMM não diga a Cotrim que foi deputado e eurodeputado, e Portugal e Europa estão cheios de problemas também…
1 - finalmente a pergunta que o moderador queria: o pacote laboral. LMM repete a conversa de que é preciso uma reforma e esta é uma reforma por isso não entende as críticas. Cotrim promulgaria (duh)
1/n
Scorchers book finals spot with Renegades WBBL defence over
Beth Mooney’s flawless 94 not out leads Perth to victory in its must-win game against Brisbane, ensuring the Scorchers will play finals again in the WBBL. ⌘ Read more
Driving test touts offer instructors £250 monthly kickbacks
Touts use instructor login details to bulk-book tests and sell them at a huge mark-up, the BBC finds. ⌘ Read more
Driving-test touts offer instructors £250 kickbacks so they can bulk-book tests
Touts use instructor login details to bulk-book tests and sell them at a huge mark-up, the BBC finds. ⌘ Read more
Bunbury elders write children’s book in Noongar preserve culture
Once forbidden from speaking their local language, a group of Indigenous elders in WA use it in a children’s book, hoping to breathe life into a dying dialect. ⌘ Read more
Higher proportion of patients in England now contacting GPs online, figures show
All NHS practices were required by the government to provide web bookings from October - but the union opposes the move. ⌘ Read more
Higher proportion of patients in England now contacting GPs online, figures show
All NHS practices were required by the government to provide web bookings from October. ⌘ Read more
Higher proportion contacting GPs online than by phone in England
All NHS practices were required by the government to provide web bookings from October. ⌘ Read more
Zipcar To End UK Operations
“The car-sharing company, first launched in the U.S. in 2000, has been active in the UK since 2010 and has just under half a million members,” writes Slashdot reader guesstral. “‘I’m writing to let you know that we are proposing to cease the UK operations of Zipcar,’ wrote Zipcar UK’s general manager, James Taylor, in an email to members today. He went on to say that Zipcar will temporarily suspend new bookings after D … ⌘ Read more
The best new science fiction books of December 2025
From a new collection of shorter fiction by Brandon Sanderson to Simon Stålenhag’s new work, via a Stranger Things novel, December’s new sci-fi features some compelling and intriguing offerings ⌘ Read more
Aboriginal healers seek to share power of ‘open hands’ with Western doctors
The Ngangkaṟi in Central Australia use traditional healing techniques to draw out illness with their hands. A new edition of their globally read book aims to share this knowledge Western health workers. ⌘ Read more
Kangaroos make history in the books and on the field in flag defence
North Melbourne proves to be ground breakers and history makers as it extend its match-winning streak to 27 games in a comprehensive win over Brisbane. ⌘ Read more
Eight books that knocked our critics’ socks off in November
Wondering what to read next? This month’s best books include a novel that brings to life Britain’s only named wind and a new book by the author of The Handmaid’s Tale. ⌘ Read more
Our verdict on sci-fi novel Every Version of You: We (mostly) loved it
New Scientist Book Club members share their thoughts on our November read, Grace Chan’s Every Version of You ⌘ Read more
Read an extract from The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading Iain M. Banks’s classic sci-fi novel The Player of Games. In this extract, we meet protagonist Gurgeh for the first time ⌘ Read more
Why sci-fi novelist Iain M. Banks was an ‘astounding’ world-builder
The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading the late Iain M. Banks’s Culture novel The Player of Games. Fellow science fiction author Bethany Jacobs reveals how his work inspired her ⌘ Read more
Travel company embroiled in overcharging scandal worth more than $100m
Corporate Travel Management helps arrange travel bookings for clients ranging from Wesfarmers to the Australian government. ⌘ Read more
Crease-Free iPhone Fold on Track for 2026 Launch as Development Advances
Apple is making progress on the development of the book-style foldable iPhone expected in 2026, according to a report from Chinese site UDN. The device has reportedly entered the engineering validation stage, and Apple is gearing up for mass production.
, one of the earliest 3rd-party zines (coming out during the initial run of OD&D). It’s filled with a bunch of unique ideas (some better than others), entirely too many charts, and is very much a product of its time, but there’s something about its “raw”-ness (and its variety) that I still find appealing.
The Art of Solder Jumper Programming ; a book I’d love to write one day . #halfbaked #electronics #programming
Meta Is Killing Off the External Facebook Like Button
Meta is retiring Facebook’s external Like and Share buttons for third-party websites on February 10, 2026, officially closing the book on a once-dominant traffic driver as usage declines and Facebook’s role within Meta continues to shrink.Engadget reports: The blog post from Meta explains that site admins shouldn’t have to take any additional steps as a result of the … ⌘ Read more
The Algorithm Failed Music
An anonymous reader shares a report: Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world. While its algorithmic recommendations aren’t necessarily the reason, its reach has meant that hundreds of millions of people are being fed a steady diet of music curated by a machine. Spotify’s goal is to keep you listening no matter what. In her book Mood Machine, journalist Liz Pelly recounts a story told to … ⌘ Read more
Amazon is Testing an AI Tool That Automatically Translates Books Into Other Languages
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon just introduced an AI tool that will automatically translate books into other languages. The appropriately-named Kindle Translate is being advertised as a resource for authors that self publish on the platform.
The company says the tool can translate entire boo … ⌘ Read more
I finally have the Internet Phone Book as well. Ordered from Hyper Hypo in Greece because that was the only place with stock. Lots to explore for quiet moments! ⌘ Read more
Thematic Book Series: Too Much Combustion, Too Little Fire
Image: Book cover.
- Buy the print edition.
- Buy the epub edition.
For most of history … ⌘ Read more
The best new science fiction books of November 2025
From Claire North’s new novel Slow Gods to a 10th anniversary edition of a brilliant Adrian Tchaikovsky book, there’s lots to watch out for in November’s science fiction ⌘ Read more
Our verdict on Our Brains, Our Selves: A mix of praise and misgivings
The New Scientist Book Club has various issues with Masud Husain’s prize-winning popular science book about neurology ⌘ Read more
Book Club: Read an extract from Every Version of You by Grace Chan
In this passage from the opening of Grace Chan’s sci-fi novel, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are introduced to her protagonists as they spend time in a virtual utopia which is becoming increasingly tempting in a dying world ⌘ Read more
If you could upload your mind to a virtual utopia, would you?
Grace Chan, author of Every Version of You, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, explores the philosophical implications of the choices her characters make ⌘ Read more
Nvidia will build AI supercomputers for US Energy Department, announces total bookings of $500 billion ⌘ Read more
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Finally, new books arrived. Let’s see if Dead Silence is as good as it sounds. 😃
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This was a great read, btw. 😃 If you liked Event Horizon, this is for you. I’m gonna get her other two scifi books as well, that’s for sure.
OpenAI unveils AI browser that can do your shopping
The company is betting big on AI agents that can book your flights and order your groceries while you watch. The announcement has already wiped billions from Google’s valuation. ⌘ Read more