Around the Word

Merger Mania
The long-awaited Penguin / Random House merger is complete. Penguin issued a statement, saying, "Today, Penguin Random House becomes the first truly global trade book publisher." They didn't use any of the quirky new names many were hoping they would (Penguin House! Random Penguin!), but they do have a spiffy new website. Publishers Weekly released an article with information about which employees will be moving where, and what the structure of the new company will look like. Publishing Perspectives' Dennis Abrams interviewed industry insiders on the merger and what it will mean for all of us.

The Kids are All Right
Lots of great new YA books have been appearing on the shelves in time for summer. Check out Book Riot’s Ultimate Guide to YA Summer Reading for a list of books that stand out from the crowd. Publishing Perspectives takes a look at an interesting new trend in in books for young adults: the "home-grown series." Simon & Schuster's children's division pioneered this movement, which involves "editors creating story arcs and characters in-house and then finding authors and illustrators to put the ideas into books." If even a YA novel is too heavy for your poolside reading, try the digital comic Lil’ Gotham, which is great for older readers as well. Kelly Thompson talks about the merits of the comic on Lit Reactor.

Book Art / Art Books
Comic books like Lil’ Gotham aren’t the only example of what great things can happen when art and literature combine. In a series of stunning photographs, photojournalist Steve McCurry captures readers and their books all around the world. Russian-born artist Ekaterina Panikanova takes a different tack, painting directly onto the pages of old books to create beautiful, textured paintings. Some authors combine the spheres of painting and reading in a less literal way, as seen in this Lit Reactor piece on five painters who are also authors.

Around the Word

Spring Is Here! As the weather finally warms up after the seemingly endless winter, thoughts turn to sunny days in the park or at the beach with a good book. If you need help picking out your next read, Publishers Weekly has rounded up the most anticipated books of the season, including fiction, non-fiction, travel, and more. Book Riot also shares five new April releases that could make for the perfect outdoor read. Looking for a hilarious book to match that sunny good mood? The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize nominees for the funniest book in Britain were announced this week. Or if you're stuck inside at work, perhaps these delightful pictures of outdoor libraries can tide you over until the weekend. Happy spring!

April Is for Poetry. National Poetry Month is in full swing, and there are so many ways to get inspired and participate. This year the Academy of American Poets is focusing on the role of letter writing in the lives of poets: their website is filled with examples of poets' love letters and poems read as letters. Flavorwire is celebrating with images of incredible handwritten poems by famous authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Emily Dickinson. For a more interactive experience, the Poetry Foundation has a Record-a-Poem feature on their site, which allows people to upload recordings of poems they love. Even the New York Times is getting in on the fun: a software architect at the paper created an algorithm that finds accidental haikus in articles! Still want more? The LA Times' Jacket Copy blog has compiled a number of fun projects, blogs, and events.

Oh, Big Brother. "Teacher Knows If You've Done the E-Reading" is a headline no procrastination-prone student wants to read, but there it was in the New York Times this week. A new startup, CourseSmart, allows professors to track students' reading in their digital textbooks. The major publishers have been tracking data from e-textbooks for years, but CourseSmart puts that data right in professors' hands, allowing them to see not only whether students are reading, but also if they skip pages, how often they open the book, and what they highlight. Is this a little too invasive? Although the professors interviewed were thrilled with the idea, students themselves jokingly bemoaned the "Big Brother" aspect of it. But as the article points out, people are growing accustomed to their data being mined at every turn. Just last summer we did a post on how companies like Barnes & Noble are harvesting data on reading habits from their e-readers. What do you think? Is this an invasion of privacy or just a smart new tool for the digital age? Tell us in the comments.