Tony Reinke, “6 Ways to Find (and Protect) the Time You Need to Read Books” (Crossway.org) 

“I read a lot of books. My annual goal is to read seventy-five books, which may sound like a lot. And it is a lot, but not compared to some of my extraordinary friends.

“So how do I read seventy-five books each year? I don’t read a lot of books because I have a ton of free time. My calendar is full, my honey-do list is long, my three kids are hyper, and my boss is active (or is it the other way around?). And my running shoes are neglected, my weight bench is dusty, and my yard is overgrown. I live in the real world, just like you.

“The short answer is that I find the time to read because I invest my time carefully.”

Thu-Huong Ha, “Akutagawa Prize Draws Controversy After Win for Work that Used ChatGPT” (The Japan Times)

“On Wednesday evening, Rie Qudan won the country’s most important prize for early career writers for ‘Tokyo-to Dojo-to,’ or ‘Sympathy Tower Tokyo.’ The novel is about an architect in the capital, billed as a narrative that ‘exposes the prophecy of the AI generation.’

“In her acceptance speech, Qudan stated: ‘This is a novel written by making full use of a generative AI like ChatGPT, and probably about 5% of the whole text is written directly from the generative AI. I would like to work well with them to express my creativity.’”

Joel Miller, “Bookish Diversions: Surrounded by Books” (Miller’s Book Review) 

“It’s hard to overestimate the value of a personal library. I’ve written here before about the benefits; I listed five, though of course there are many others. The pluses so manifestly outweigh the minuses that serious readers will do almost anything to build their collections. It’s like an impulse, an instinct, something pre-rational. We scarcely ever consider the negatives; are there any worth seriously pondering? Nah. Insufficient funds or space? Minor irritants, not obstacles. We get creative.”