Lit Hub Daily: December 23, 2022

• Jess deCourcy Hinds asks a very important question: Could America even handle Iceland’s traditional Christmas “Book Flood”? (A merry Jólabókaflóðið to all who celebrate!) | Lit Hub

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• 23 excellent books to give as gifts, according to indie booksellers. | Lit Hub

• “All novelists are spies or should be.” Nickolas Butler on people-watching at a bar in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, population 14,778. | Lit Hub

• A survey of Hitchcock films not directed by Alfred Hitchcock. | CrimeReads

• Keri Blakinger has compiled a searchable database of banned books in prisons across the country. | The Marshall Project

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• Meg Zukin reflects on the year in BookTok drama. | Vulture

• Which authors—dead or alive—do other authors most want to attend their fantasy dinner parties? A look at the numbers. | The New York Times

• “Art is not scrubbing toilets. It’s not an unpleasant task most people would rather have the robots do. It is our heart.” Molly Crabapple on AI “art.” | Los Angeles Times

• Your guide to Charles Dickens. | The Guardian

• “There’s a world just out of sight, a garden growing—a pulsing, living thing that I need just as much as it needs me.” Julia Fine on unlocking the secret door to your novel. | Catapult

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Also on Lit Hub: Judith Thurman considers the work of Elena Ferrante • How TV can help us get better at Zoom • Linguistic lessons on the playground