What Snoop Dogg’s Success Says About the Book Industry

No. The tax break went on for too long, and that online bookstore became a global near-monopoly on all physical items the size of a coffee table or smaller. Before that, traditional bookstores had already been slammed by grocery-store sized bestseller warehouse chains - the more than a decade long state subsidy to internet retailers actually killed those.

The question is how do we algorithmically boost unique content without bringing along junk content.

By the mid-1960's every petroleum and electronics conglomerate had capital that it couldn't put back in its own business, so they started buying other businesses, and publishers were a popular target.

Once the publishers were controlled by people who were motivated by money they tried to make more of it but in the process profitability dropped, sometimes below zero.

Or they diversify into other fields like stationery where people actually prefer buying them in person sometimes.

Some never stopped. Powell's (physical) bookstore in Portland is bigger than most city libraries I've been in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell%27s_Books

Everything I've read indicates bookstores have done phenomenally well during the pandemic

I wrote a draft of a book around the beginning of the pandemic. At the end, I lost interest and moved on to other things. (The whole idea of trying to get it published looked harder than writing the first draft.)

My $50 Fire tablet can hold 1000+ books in PDF form not to mention Kindle format, HTML, etc. It's almost as good as "read a penguin paperback" on the bus or in bed.

Go to an academic library and you see the stacks are empty (of people), books rarely circulated, but people are crowded around the computer terminals. (e.g. smart introverts go use the terminal deepest in the stacks)

"Books" as a form of literature could survive the end of physical books quite well, just as "Movies" could survive if the theaters never re-opened and it was all direct to video.

Contrast that to Lowe's or Kohl's or some other store that sells physical objects that are still in demand.

B and N tried the "build a community space with free WiFi" but in our town it became a downmarket version of the public library (another five minutes from the police station) and one day they "kicked the bums out" and as I walked by an Asperger's female with poor hygiene was complaining about it.

As for the 16th (and early 17th) century - Shakespeare?

A book that sells 5k copies probably isn't making money, but it also isn't losing a large amount unless they gave the author an unusually large advance.

Unfortunately, in the case of the cinnamon bun one, I would argue that is not a shortcut that should not be taken. The reason you have a first rise is to allow for the yeast to "multiply", so when you proof it, you get a light, ariy dough. If you skip that step, the cinnamin buns would come out dense and unevenly proofed since there is simply not enough yeast evenly distributed to make a proper rise.

I recall making a different dish out of it and following their recipe, and it was just okay.

In the end, I simply think there are better introductory cookbooks out there. One that I would recommend oddly enough is Blue Apron's cookbook. I found it used and decided to get it, and they have a lot of pretty good recipes, and they have a lot of "lessons" on how to improve your cooking technique. Maybe it was because I had low expectations for it, but I was impressed with how well it was put together. I have a few of their recipes that I have bookmarked that I rotate into my schedule.