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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
The content bonanza that is The New York Times’ List of the Best Books of the 21st Century continues with the most interesting follow-on piece yet: the reader selections. I have spent a couple of minutes looking over it and have a few initial observations. First, the original list is more interesting by a mile. There are more book club picks, commercial blockbusters, and internet darlings on this list, which is absolutely expected and meaningfully more mainstream than the main list. Second, three of the top six reader picks didn’t appear in the original list. Third, Never Let Me Go is #9 on both lists and puts it in conversation I think for the Book of the Century (so far, caveat caveat). Third, Where the Crawdads Sing is #59 on this list. No comment.
Dune: Prophecy Coming to HBO this November
This six-episode Dune: Prophecy got a release month today, along with a spiffy new teaser. The prequel series is based on a 2012 book in the Dune Universe, but not written by Frank Herbert, or even any of the other Herberts that have written Dune material. I am at this point pretty much out on prequel stuff to franchises I like, but this show is about the origins of the Bene Gesserit, and by the looks of it these space witches are engaging in some top-shelf palace intrigue. I will give it a go.
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Book Scouts Share the Financial—And Existential—Realities of Their Business
There aren’t many jobs in the book world I would rather have than my own, but being a book scout has always intrigued me. As part of its compensation series about the realities of different jobs in publishing, Publisher’s Lunch has a look at what what book scouts do, who pays them, and what the gig really is like. (Note that PL is subscription-only). If I were a book scout, there would already be a movie based on The Orchard by Adele Robertson. Probably.