Jurgen Karg’s appropriately named Elektronische Mythen (1977)

This August, as we prepare to unleash a bunch of incredible books into the world, 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!

• Here are some people not to feel sorry for: Kim Kardashian‘s 40 million Instagram followers didn’t follow her to the bookstore, and she’s only sold 32,000 copies of her book of selfies, Selfish. This is, the Daily Mail notes, still 2 1/2 times more copies than Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s fiction debut, Rebels: City of Indra: The Story of Lex and Livia.
• And The Washington Post lets us know that Ted Cruz‘s “A Time for Truth” royalties could be higher than Scott Walker‘s entire net worth. According to the paper, “Cruz reports that his contract with Harper-Collins, which published his book “A Time for Truth” in June, guarantees him at least $318,750 in royalty payments. He reported making between $100,001 and $1 million in royalties for the book.”
• In Iraq, the Baghdad National Library has taken on a major digitization project in an attempt to protect books, manuscripts, and other historical documents from being destroyed by militants. (Associated Press)
• A site intended for a women’s history museum has now become a Jack the Ripper museum, celebrating the life of the serial killer who murdered women in the area. The woman leading the protests speaks out.
• How to Be a Lady Author: tips from a 1960s photo essay in LIFE include “swim a little,” “exercise in a bikini,” and be “photographed in bed.” (TIME) 
• A new study by Statista reveals that Japanese readers spend more money on e-books than any other country, an estimated average of $86.50 over the course of 2015. The UK is in a close second at $84.40, with the US rounding out the top five, after France and Germany. (Business Insider)
• Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada subjected himself to a binge-read of eight books by Donald Trump last week. His takeaway from the experience? “Is there a single word that combines revulsion, amusement, respect and confusion? That is how it feels, sometimes by turns, often all at once, to binge on Trump’s writings.” (The Washington Post)
• The first public reading of Cormac McCarthy’s new novel, The Passenger, will take place today in Santa Fe.
• Set to open in September, Book and Bed Tokyo is a combination bookstore and hostel, with all of the beds located behind the shelves. Shibuya Publishing & Booksellers picked out the titles, designed to appeal to both visitors and residents. The books are available for sale (without a stay required), and in addition to overnight stays, the hostel will also accommodate daytime visitors who might like to spend their lunch hour lounging in bed with a good book.
• In her first piece as a book and culture columnist for Slate, Laura Miller calls F. Scott Fitzgerald’s long-forgotten, recently-resurfaced story “Temperature” “a little clockwork wonder that goes despite its creator’s evident indifference to it.”

A Song for Wednesday: “Vollmond-Selene” by Jürgen Karg