The Very Online Afterlife of Franz Kafka

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The Very Online Afterlife of Franz Kafka

A very good piece of literary-cum-internet criticism from Amanda Hess for the New York Times. I have myself stumbled upon Kafka-core social media posting and immediately got the appeal. I think Hess’ read is largely right–the melancholy, literary romanticism is well-suited for a certain kind of internet mode. Reflective, withdrawn, and sad–and all peformatively so. Do TikTok Kafka fan-edits convey the full scope of Kafka’s complexity? No. Do they need to? Also probably not.

Apple Books Becomes Official Audiobook Home for Reese’s Book Club

Another revenue stream into the river of ways Reese Witherspoon is making money from her book club without actually selling any books. There isn’t a lot of spaghetti on this fork though:

Apple Books will feature a dedicated page for users to follow to be notified about new monthly picks, browse previous selections, and experience themed editorial collections curated exclusively by Apple and Reese’s Book Club editors. Apple Books will also offer exclusive pricing promotions. Additionally, the community of authors and talent from Hello Sunshine, a part of Candle Media, will curate audiobook recommendations throughout the year, offering readers more stories to choose from that will be revealed only on Apple Books.

The real thing here is all the mentions of the Apple Book store Witherspoon will make to her enormous social followings, and for which Apple is likely paying handsomely. What do we think? Mid seven figures?

A GoFundMe To Bring The Pacific Northwest Its First Romance Bookstore

Katherine Morgan is trying to open the Pacific Northwest’s first bookstore dedicated to romance in the most modern way: a crowd-sourcing of $100,000 to get the doors open, the shelves stocked, and the registers ringing. Morgan has a meaningful online presence, and her Grand Gesture store (amazing name) has an digital storefront. But raising the total money need to open the store, and not just some portion of it, is unusual. Generally stores don’t try to raise the whole bankroll, but I don’t see why it isn’t worth trying. If you are inclined to donate $25 bucks or whatever towards 20% of a store’s start-up costs, what does it matter if that $25 goes to covering the whole thing. As of right now, just a few hours in, Morgan has raised a few thousand dollars. I would be thrilled for this thing to ping out and go visit it someday.