Evening roundup …

… Bitching and moaning about bitching and moaning: The Decline and Fall of the Book Reviewing Empire | BOOK RIOTThe Decline and Fall of the Book Reviewing Empire - BOOK RIOT.

… RIP: E. J. Lowe (1950 - 2014).

… Thinking the unthinkable: Should Books Be Sold?

… the reader as owner. Naturally, this isn’t an attractive idea for publishers. They like to think of themselves as caretakers of the classics. They release new editions ofThe Iliad and The Odyssey, they translate them anew to achieve a single objective: to make money. Yes, they might be altruistic, but the goal is always the same: profitability. In that sense, Homer isn’t different from the Bible: anyone can make money out of it. The same goes for other classics in the public domain: Dante, Goethe, Flaubert . . . Contrary to common assumptions, a book in the public domain can be a valuable commodity. In fact, it is more valuable than most titles under copyright. The challenge is to make the classics alluring as merchandise.

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)