James Folta

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Articles

Men have bigger problems than not reading novels.

Jan 23, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

Perhaps predictably, the men-aren’t-reading discourse has made the jump into 2025. The perennial conversation has taken on new weight this year, though, as we begin to be governed by the worst of men, the putrid avatars of a hatefully reactionary masculinity. Increasingly, what’s wrong with men is what’s wrong with America. Would a reading list of novels enlighten them? The problem with the “dudes don’t read” argument is that the numbers don’t really seem to back the point up.
Now might be a good time to re-read George Orwell.

Jan 21, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

“Is it or is it not fascism” is a debate we’re going to be having a lot in the next few years, I’m afraid. And while there is perhaps an intellectual rigor to sussing out an answer, there are also things that are what they appear to be. Yesterday was a grim parade of slaps in the face, especially from the bossists (to borrow a term from John Ganz) like Elon Musk, who threw out two enthusiastic Nazi salutes.
Vampires, pranks and podcasts: here are some ideas to reboot 2025’s public domain books.

Jan 16, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

The new year means new calendars you’ll stop using in a month, new resolutions you’ll break in a week, and new public domain works you can remix and ruin all year long. And in 2025, a lot of classics are escaping the shackles of copyright — Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a great list and a thorough explainer on the law, if you want to dig a little deeper. Some of these dusty 1929 books are just crying out for an exciting reboot for today’s fickle audiences.
It sure looks like Meta stole a lot of books to build its AI.

Jan 14, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

It’s a grim week for Meta. The company formally known as Facebook, and before that Facemash, “designed to evaluate the attractiveness of female Harvard students,” now encompasses Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Meta, the failed vision for a remote workplace, fun-zone, and Zucker-verse where legs are always just around the corner.
Is an NFL player reading a book on the sidelines a win for books?

Jan 13, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

Photo from Fox’s Twitter/X accountI’m not a big football fan, but I did watch a lot of skateboarding videos as a teen so I understand the appeal of a sport that involves lots of concussions. So I nearly missed the overlap between reading and football (speaking of violent collisions) that happened this weekend when Philadelphia Eagle’s star wide receiver and three time Pro-Bowler A.J. Brown cracked open a paperback the sidelines of a playoff game:AJ Brown is reading a book on the sideline?
Why I make a very dumb, ranked list of the 100 words I use most every year.

Jan 9, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

At the end of the last few years, I’ve made a habit of putting together a list of the top 100 words I’ve published most frequently that year. It’s admittedly a strange and arbitrary way to look at a year’s worth of writing, and at first glance, doesn’t really tell you that much about what I wrote. The top 100 are mostly what you’d expect: articles, pronouns, conjunctions, commonly used words, and the odd wild card. It’s a dumb little project, but one that has become dear to me.
Fable’s AI-generated end-of-year reading summaries veered into bigotry.

Jan 8, 2025 | lithub.com | James Folta

I’ve never taken a business school class, but I have to imagine that one of the very first things they teach you is “make sure to not say racist things to your customers,” right after you learn, “this money line should go up” and “regulation = bad.”But Fable, “the social app for bookworms and bingewatchers,” whiffed big time on the no-bigotry axiom when their Spotify-Wrapped-style summarizations of users’ years in reading started spitting out some really nasty stuff.
Fable’s AI-generated end-of-year reading summaries veered into bigotry.

Jan 8, 2025 | flipboard.com | James Folta

How to install an LLM on MacOS (and why you should)If you like the idea of AI but don't want to share your content or information with a third party, you can always install an LLM on your Apple …
According to library checkouts, New Yorkers read a lot of Gabrielle Zevin this year.

Dec 18, 2024 | lithub.com | James Folta

Today, NYC’s public library systems—The New York Public Library (which serves Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island), Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Public Library—released their lists of the books New Yorkers checked out of the library the most in 2024. The stats compile checkouts in all formats, and are broken down by library system, borough, and book demographic. There aren’t a ton of big surprises, but it’s a varied and interesting window into what people are reading.
Reporters Without Borders finds that Palestine was the deadliest place in 2024 for journalists.

Dec 12, 2024 | lithub.com | James Folta

Press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders released their 2024 round-up today and found that Israel’s genocidal assault made Palestine the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist this year, which they called “an unprecedented massacre.” RSF report found an “alarming intensification of attacks on journalists” around the world, but found that Palestine bore the brunt of the suffering and death: Gaza stands out as the most dangerous region in the world, with the highest number of...