Carly Buchwald, “The Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon’s Book Fund” (The Gospel Coalition)

“After Charles completed his first volume of Lectures to My Students, Susie voiced her desire to place it in the hands of every minister in England. Her husband responded, ‘Then why not do so: how much will you give?’

“Taken aback by his challenge, Susie responded with conviction and obedience. She found in an upstairs drawer the exact amount of money to pay for 100 copies. Though she didn’t yet know it, this was how the Book Fund began.”

Brett McCracken, “Read Books, Not AI Summaries of Books” (The Gospel Coalition)

“If SparkNotes appealed to teenagers and college students in my generation—a short cut to actually reading a long book—then surely ‘AI book summarizing’ will be a live temptation going forward. It will be hard to resist a hack that promises the benefits of reading a book (‘takeaways’) without the huge time cost it takes to read hundreds of pages. Life is busy, time is short, and there are way more great books out there than any of us could ever actually read. Why not ‘read’ more books by leaning on AI’s synthesizing prowess, gaining knowledge more efficiently?

“Because it’s a bad trade. It’s like swapping a feast for fast food.”

Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Jasmine Romero, “It’s Hard to Read. Here’s Why” (NPR)

“Data from Gallup and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Americans are reading fewer books and spending less time reading than ever. There’s been reporting on college kids struggling to finish longer texts. And earlier this year, in a viral post, one user lamented their loss of concentration for reading, which led to a larger online discourse about how to approach books again.”

Jeffrey Bilbro, “A Love for Reading and Reading for Love” (Mere Orthodoxy)

“Reading, especially solitary reading, is neither necessary nor sufficient to the process of soul maturation, of growing into the kind of persons capable of love. Yet as these authors demonstrate, it can provide remarkable, transformative encounters with people we could otherwise never listen to, and if we ruminate well on their wisdom, we may cultivate souls capable of better loving both our neighbors and God.”

Andrew Spencer, “I’m a Librarian. How Should I Handle Fights over Book Removals?” (The Gospel Coalition)

“The best way to fight inappropriate or untruthful books is by recommending to your library books that are good, true, and beautiful. Individual librarians exert substantial influence over the content of their collections. This speaks to the need for Christians to become qualified and work in public libraries to help improve collection development.”

Joel Miller, “Forget the Paperback?” (Miller’s Book Review)

“For what seems like ages now, the typical lifecycle of a nonfiction book included a year exclusively in hardcover and then a long-tail life in trade paper. Still, that’s never been true for every book. I worked at Thomas Nelson for over a decade. Many times, we’d publish new authors in paper and graduate them up to hardcover for subsequent books if sales proved robust enough. Other times, a hardcover might make a poor showing and never go to paperback because the demand wasn’t there.”