Book sales are above what they were pre-pandemic; however, if you’re trying to contribute to the boom, you might have some trouble because there is a book shortage. In an NPR business show released on Oct. 4 entitled “All Things Considered,” Petra Mayer said, “The pandemic has meant that there’s no one to staff warehouses and ports, so getting printed books to market is way more difficult and expensive than it is usually.” 

If you are looking to get your hands on a physical book or instead opt to read digitally, scroll through some recommendations in alphabetical order by book title from members of the English Department below.

Gallery • 7 Photos

Photo courtesy of Penguin Random House

Colin Franklin, Interventionist, recommends “Exhalation: Stories” by Ted Chiang, a Science-fiction/fantasy short story collection. “The stories all deal with some deeper questions about being human in the age of exponential technological growth. My favorite story was about a human-like cyborg living in a world similar to earth who ends up dissecting his own brain to see how he forms memories. The ending is beautiful. In a room full of people, I almost cried reading it.”