Audi-uh-oh

Is the audiobook boom finally beginning to bust? While the sky might not be falling just yet, the latest report from the Association of American Publishers found digital audiobook sales falling 12.5% in April after being the primary driver of trade sales for years. A Kyiv publishing house was decimated in a Russian attack—which also damaged another publisher and a bookstore—last Tuesday, just one week after the city hosted its popular annual literary festival. A new report released by EveryLibrary explores how book censorship was transformed into a nationwide movement over the past few years. And Gallery’s 13A imprint will put out NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson’s memoir in October. Simon & Schuster will publish an art book from Bob Dylan this fall, according to the New York Times. The drama wracking BookTok has made national news, including accusations of plagiarism, AI use, and hostility toward authors, NBC reports. A new study found that a Meta AI model was able to reproduce verbatim almost half of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, per Ars Technica. Fanfiction writers have been some of the most vulnerable, and tenacious, figures in the fight to protect creative work from being used to train AI, reports the Verge. For Oldster, journalist Ruth Bonapace reflects on becoming a debut novelist at 70. The Atlantic considers the decline in men who read fiction—and why they might choose to pick it back up again. And Soviet poet James Lloydovich Patterson has died at 91.