Alright Boundlings I’m curious!! Who has made the switch to dark mode and who is keeping light mode? Dare I make it a competition and say battle it out with an emoji or gif in the comments on which team you are repping??

🎤 ahem in one corner we have the prettiest pastels and visually stunning colors… it’s Light Mode versus the new competitor, a dark sultry visually calming high color scheme… it’s Dark Mode. Let the battle begin 🥊

hehe in all seriousness I needed the high contrast that dark mode offers from an accessibility standpoint so team dark mode all the way over here 🖤

These three things seem certain. Since ARC Controversies are the only one pertinent to this site, I'm going to write about that one. I was thinking about this earlier, as the latest discussion of the topic made the rounds on social media and I posted my thoughts there:

I think authors who go after people who are trading or selling ARCs come out looking badly in most cases, and the reason for it is fairly simple. Copyright is a matter of public policy. It entails not only a private right but a public benefit (in fact, the latter is the main purpose of copyright, in the U.S.). A sort of bargain is struck between the public and the copyright holder. The copyright holder is granted an exclusive bundle of rights for a very long time (for example, their life PLUS 70 years more for their heirs) and in exchange the public also retains certain rights, such as Fair Use or, particularly pertinent here, rights under the First Sale Doctrine.

An author can't easily deprive the public of those First Sale Doctrine rights. Certainly, printing something on the front of or inside a work has been found inadequate in the courts.

Even an actual contract restricting sale or giveaways may be inadequate in most cases, where there isn't a 'true' license involved.

Most authors don't seem to get worked up over this, but there are a few now and again who are happy to take the long-term, robust rights granted to them under the Copyright Act while at the same time railing against others for exercising the rights reserved to the public. That doesn't give me a good view of that particular author. For some reason, it is almost always indie authors who get worked up over this, and I think there is a certain lack of professionalism involved (and, again, it's a small subset; most authors don't seem to get too exorcised over the subject).

In any event, I think the public and private rights/benefits of the copyright system are both important, so if people want to give away or sell ARCs, in most cases they're probably well within the public right to do so (in the U.S.) and shouldn't feel bad about it, imo.

ETA: I appreciate the discussion. IP and Policy are strong interests of mine and it's nice that people like to engage with it with a variety of backgrounds and opinions!

Would you rather...cozy up to read on a rainy day, or a snowy day?

Would you rather...read with tasty snacks, or a yummy beverage?

Would you rather...buddy read with a friend, or tackle a book solo?

Considering the largely negative reviews here vs. the largely positive ones on Storygraph, I am very interested to see which side I land on.

Quick semi announcement that the new app version was released on Android! This includes Midnight mode (ie dark mode) and a bunch of other quality of life improvements.

Hopefully we can get Apple out ASAP but we've been waiting over a week on their review, it's been a bit of a battle! But we didn't want to keep Android waiting while Apple is stuck.

Okay this is so dumb but I'm constantly amazed by how many of my mutuals here get really excited by new quests and are motivated to read books they otherwise wouldn't probably look at primarily because Badge Shiny. Badge Shiny doesn't honestly hook me at all? And I get it's core to pagebound, and I'm not judging at all, it's fun to see everyone get excited even tho I find it baffling. I'm absolutely intrigued by the whole phenomenon. So I thought I'd make a post with a simple purpose.

Up-vote this post if you are motivated to read things you might not otherwise read because Badge Shiny. Down-vote this post if you are not motivated to read things you might not otherwise read because Badge Shiny (you may still read things you would have read anyway sooner because hey, you'll also get a badge, so why not, but acquiring the badge is not your main reason for doing the thing).

Explain or talk more about your views in the comments, should the spirit move you to do so.