Every time I see this picture, I think Bildad (“The Poor Man’s Peleg”) has a beard made of barnacles.

This August, as we prepare to unleash a truly remarkable fall catalog, MobyLives will be taking a bit of a breather. We’ll still post the occasional news item or feature, but for most of this month we’ll be posting a roundup like this every morning. We will, of course, remain active on Twitter and Facebook. We hope you have a great August, and that you’ll keep checking in with us!

• Amazon’s squeezing other businesses, like this little company called Walt Disney. “I’ve got whozits and whatzits galore. You want thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty! But who cares? No big deal. I want more.” – Jeff Bezos (The Wall Street Journal)
• Academics and artists in London are protesting over what they perceive as a threat to break up the Warburg Institute, a unique library that was smuggled out of Hamburg to the University of London during the Nazis’ rise to power. The library is currently located in its own building in Woburn Square, but—despite denials from the university—protestors believe that it’s in danger of losing its independence within the university, and having its collections broken up. (The Guardian)
• John Scalzi offers his responses to common questions like, “Why do you hate Amazon?” (John Scalzi)
• Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House UK, has been appointed to the House of Lords. Because that’s a thing that can happen when you’re an executive in England. She was made a dame in 2009. Not too shabby. (The Bookseller)
• Boston’s public libraries have been culling the shelves of unpopular books recently, causing consternation among patrons and book lovers. Library officials say that the goal is to update inventory and make room for 23 million items, as well as computers, study rooms, and meeting spaces. Groups such as the Friends of Fields Corner Branch Library, however, lament the loss; member Jane Matheson tells the Boston Globe, “I can’t begin to imagine what their thinking is in this wholesale removal of books. If you want books you’ve got to go look for them… A whole lot of poor people are not running around with an iPad in one hand.” (The Boston Globe)
• Over at Full Stop I summon the murderous, lecherous spirit of Samuel Johnson with Eric Jett and a few unlikely interns. (Full Stop)
• Random House Children’s Books is going to publish a series of chapter books based on the hugely popular Disney movie Frozen, written by Erica David. The first two titles in the “Anna and Elsa” series–All Hail the Queen and Anna’s Missing Memories–will be fittingly released this winter, on January 6. USA Today has an exclusive excerpt from the first book on its Book Buzz blog. (USA Today)
• The Edinburgh Book Festival begins this week and runs through August 25. (Edinburgh Book Festival)
• The word “selfie” continues its hideous march through the world of literature, as Rizzoli announced last week that it will publish a book of selfies by Kim Kardashian. Fittingly titled Selfish, it’s due out in April 2015 and will probably net Kardashian untold millions of dollars, because the world’s just that unfair. (E!)

Today’s passage from Moby-Dick:

I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now know that thy right worship is defiance. To neither love nor reverence wilt thou be kind; and e’en for hate thou canst but kill; and all are killed. No fearless fool now fronts thee. I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me. In the midst of the personified impersonal, a personality stands here. Though but a point at best; whencesoe’er I came; wheresoe’er I go; yet while I earthly live, the queenly personality lives in me, and feels her royal rights. But war is pain, and hate is woe. Come in thy lowest form of love, and I will kneel and kiss thee; but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there’s that in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee.–Chapter 119

Today’s song: “Miss Misery” by Elliott Smith