Park Slope

 On Sept. 24, Jhumpa Lahiri's new Booker Prize-nominated novel, "The Lowland," will be released on this side of the Atlantic by Knopf in what promises to be a highlight of this most literary season. And yet surveying recent offerings in the bookstores, one can't help but notice a strange echo reverberating behind the esteemed author. Even the world of publishing, it seems, is not immune to the whims of fashion. 

"No one wants to be derivative in book-titling," said Ms. Sohn, an occasional Times contributor whose novel was released in paperback this past summer.

I just read about a new book printed in disappearing ink. Published by Argentinean publisher Eterna Cadencia, “El libro que no puede esperar,” or “The Book That Can’t Wait,” features a selection of new Latin American authors, and is printed in ink that fades when exposed to light and air. Two months after you buy the book, it’s gone.