NFTs Are a Scam / NFTs Are the Future

December 1, 2022

With King, the New York Times best-selling Eig ( Ali), a former senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, draws on recently declassified FBI files to create a bold new study of Martin Luther King Jr. (100,000-copy first printing). Drafted by the FBI as a trilingual counterterrorism researcher, Billy Reilly went to Russia when it first invaded Ukraine's Donbas region and promptly cut off all communication; it was unclear whether the FBI actually sent him, but Reilly's parents asked Wall Street Journal reporter Forrest to find their Lost Son (100,000-copy first printing). AsSlate staff writer Grabar clarifies in Paved Paradise, parking matters; we've distorted our landscape to find cheap and easy ways to store our cars, with much valuable real estate devoted to vehicles sitting empty when space for affordable housing is desperately needed; at least Grabar proposes solutions. Following This Is Not a T-Shirt, a memoir about his clothing brand, Hundreds (aka Bobby Kim) limns his venture into NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), Web3, and the Metaverse in NFTs Are a Scam / NFTs Are the Future (75,000-copy first printing). Former secretary of the Treasury and cochair of Goldman Sachs, Rubin draws on six decades' worth of experience in business and politics to explain how to make smart decisions in an uncertain world; it all begins with sketching out the possibilities on a simple Yellow Pad (or now an iPad). In Traffic, former BuzzFeed editor in chief Smith shows how Nick Denton's Gawker and Jonah Peretti's HuffPost and BuzzFeed fatefully duked it out for control of internet media in the early 2000s, arguing that the unintended consequence was a rightward shift in the internet's orientation. Windham-Campbell Award-winning South African writer Steinberg shows how the marriage of Winnie and Nelson Mandela reflects the course of South African history and tensions within the antiapartheid movement, as Winnie moved toward supporting armed insurrection while Nelson was jailed.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2023
An undercooked introduction to cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens. Hundreds runs a streetwear label and has minted his own NFTs, both of which provide his book a foundation of industry experience. But despite an eager narrative and insightful interviews, it comes up short. The author rushes through technical details, which are often overshadowed by meandering cultural commentary and speculation. What's a blockchain? "You can google it," he explains in his prologue. Written between 2021 and 2022, the book is a "snapshot" of that time, and he's "cognizant that there are outdated remarks." Though often informative, the author rearticulates ideas throughout multiple essays. Slang and acronyms like FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) are repeatedly parsed out, as if each appearance is the reader's first introduction. Hundreds assumes his readership is familiar with his fashion label, and some essays feel like sales pitches, particularly those that tout his company's efforts to lead the digital fashion scene in the metaverse. A lengthy account of the creation of his "Adam Bomb Squad" NFTs is compelling, but it shines a light more on the expanding fashion industry than on the crypto wave. Most problematic is the author's view of his readership. Following a comment about his kids' interest in digital Fortnite costumes, he writes: "you're no different....You'd rather curate your page instead of decorating your home." During Zoom meetings, "people started facing their cameras toward their bookshelves to appear well-read. Others dropped a colorful painting behind their heads to associate with culture." This jaded take muddles his message. NFTs may indeed be a community-driven new wave of media on a cutting-edge platform, but Hundreds is unable to explain the phenomenon without framing its participants as either savvy businesspeople or always-online users looking for something unique to enhance their digital existence. The plethora of readers who don't fall into these two categories will find little resonance. An uneven overview that fails to step outside its own scene.

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