November 2017

Today libraries are simultaneously tourist destinations, places to read, places to gather and socialize, places to study, and places to learn. They also remain a mirror of our culture. They reflect not just the way we consume information (and architecture) through our phones today, but also the forces of that inequality. Tomorrow, will libraries exist as the gateway to public enrichment,  or will they all be reduced down to naming rights and Instagram hashtags?

From The Culture War Being Fought Over Tomorrow’s Libraries

Looking for the title and author of a short story I read. I recall reading this story in a Science fiction magazine like Analog or Asimov’s. The story detailed a fast food restaurant that had an elaborate defense system to protect against robbers or mass shooters. The story either directly said or hinted that these types of attacks were so common that this restaurant defense system was nothing unusual. The story details an attack on the restaurant and the defense systems countering the attack. The story ends with the employee running the defense system dropping a micro-particle screen to protect the restaurant from gunfire. The attacker is hit by the screen and is killed. I believe I read the story around 20 years ago. I think story was written prior to Columbine. I am interested to look at the short story again and read it now that I am in a future world that has many similarities to the story. Problem is I cannot not remember title or author. Would appreciate if anyone has hints of what the story might be.

As I have asked around about this short story some people have suggested the book “Altered Carbon”. That book has a scene where an automatic defense system operates in a hotel. I have read that book and I know why people are making the connection to my question but the item I am looking for is definitely a short story and not a novel.

More About Amazon.com’s Best Books of 2017
All year, Amazon.com’s editorial team reads with an eye for the Best Books of the Month, plus the best books in popular categories like Cooking, Food & Wine, Literature & Fiction, Children’s books, Mystery & Thrillers, Comics & Graphic Novels, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, the best books for teens, and more. We scour reviews and book news for tips on what the earliest readers have loved, share our own copies and tear through as many books as possible. Then we face off in a monthly Best Books meeting to champion the titles we think will resonate most with readers.

In October, we collect all our favorites, look at upcoming 2017 titles, and cast our ballots for the Best Books of the Year. The titles that made our lists are the keepers, the ones we couldn’t forget. Many of our editorial picks for the best books are also customer favorites and best sellers, but we love to spotlight the best books you might not otherwise have heard about, too.

The books included in Amazon’s Best Books program are entirely editorial selections. We are committed to helping customers find terrific gifts for booklovers and drawing more attention to exceptional authors. Our passion is for uniting readers of all ages and tastes with their next favorite reads.

From Best Books of the Year @ Amazon.com

Stiefvater revealed that she is now writing three more books set in the Raven Cycle world, but that the new trilogy “nearly didn’t exist because of piracy”. “And already I can see in the tags how Tumblr users are talking about how they intend to pirate book one of the new trilogy for any number of reasons, because I am terrible or because they would ‘rather die than pay for a book’,” she wrote. “As an author, I can’t stop that. But pirating book one means that publishing cancels book two. This ain’t 2004 anymore. A pirated copy isn’t ‘good advertising’ or ‘great word of mouth’ or ‘not really a lost sale’.”

From ‘We’re told to be grateful we even have readers’: pirated ebooks threaten the future of book series | Books | The Guardian

Originally a byproduct of the European mining industry, arsenic offered mining companies a means of profiting from a waste product, and offered manufacturers a means of obtaining a cheap dye. Thousands of tons were annually imported to the United States. The substance produced lovely hues ranging from deep emerald to pale sea-green. Arsenic could also be mixed into other colors, giving them a soft, appealing pastel appearance.

The first application of arsenic as a pigment was as a paint dye. The pale green shade caught on as a “refined” color. American manufacturers began using arsenic to color a range of consumer goods. Children’s toys were painted with arsenical paint. Arsenic-dyed paper was used in greeting cards, stationery, candy boxes, concert tickets, posters, food container labels, mailing labels, pamphlets, playing cards, book-bindings, and envelopes –envelopes the sender had to lick.

From The Ann Arbor Chronicle | In the Archives: Poison Pages

Card catalogs feel very old but are shockingly new. Merchants stored letters and slips of paper on wire or thread in the Renaissance. (Our word “file” comes from filum, or wire.) But a whole technology, based on scientific principles, for storing, retrieving, and circulating an infinitely extensible batch of documents? That is some modern-ass shit. And it helped create the world we all live in.

From Card catalogs and the secret history of modernity