A Change of Pace and a Fun Bit of History
By Alan Dove
First, a programming note. If you subscribe to the RSS feed for this site, thank you, and I apologize for the recent re-release of a bunch of posts through the feed. I was twiddling the knobs backstage here to update some things, and the re-postings were an unfortunate side effect. Everything should be back on pace now.
Now for the October update. I’ve decided to change my monthly review posts a bit. Looking back over the series, I realized that a lot of the books I read aren’t ones I want to recommend to other people. The reviews reflect that, with many of them expressing my disappointment. While I stand by those reviews, and plan to leave them online for now, it occurred to me that my negative takes aren’t helping anyone. If I’m not recommending the book, why even review it? And in the unlikely event one of the authors happens upon this blog, why hurt their feelings?
I’ll continue reading at the pace I’ve established over the past few years, roughly a book a week, because even if I don’t love a book enough to point others toward it, I almost always learn something from it. It might give me a few interesting facts, expose me to writing styles, structures, or plot devices I hadn’t encountered before, or just refine my own understanding of my preferences.
Not every book is for every reader. Starting this month, I’ll focus on the ones that were for me.
Wright, A., Empire of Ink: Nonfiction. Benjamin Franklin was a printer. So was Samuel Clemens before he became famous as Mark Twain. But the news business Franklin was in hardly resembled the one Twain came to love, and neither looked much like what came afterward. Between the Revolutionary War and the turn of the 20th century, the American newspaper industry exploded in size, transformed technologically, and produced more printed text than all previous global output since Gutenberg. In this fascinating history, Wright walks through this critical period, tracking the trends and personalities that shaped not only the way Americans got their news, but the way the nation itself came to construct its identity.
Having worked in news for almost 30 years, I’ve absorbed the same capsule history most journalists hear. In outline, it goes like this. Early artisanal printing became steadily more efficient, then consolidated into the media landscape of big city papers and their many smaller subsidiaries, in an inevitable march toward the glorious media ecosystem of the late 20th century. Then the internet came along and ruined everything. It turns out that this much-repeated origin myth includes a few stretchers.
Wright offers a strong corrective, revealing the hidden nuances, underappreciated trends, and outsized personalities that shaped the news business through a mix of deliberate choices and accidental discoveries. There was nothing inevitable here, and many unintended consequences. In bringing these crucial details to light, Wright illustrates that what we consider the “golden age” of newspapers in the 20th century was a weird historical anomaly, and that the future of media might look a lot like the past. Even if you’re not in publishing, this insightful, well-written story is a timely and interesting read.
Here’s Tiramisu, one of the gray kittens we fostered in October. All of these cuties have now gone on to their permanent homes.
Here are the other books I read this month, which I’m listing here mainly so I can keep track of them. To be clear, I didn’t hate any of them, just didn’t feel they all needed my reviews:
Yu, V., Seek Immediate Shelter
Covington, C.D., Filling Your Worlds with Words
Cermele, J., et al., The Total Fishing Manual
Denzer, K., Build Your Own Earth Oven
I also read several issues of the fascinating cultural artifact, “Silver Bells from Hiroshima,” which you can read about in the previous post.