“Art reviews are getting way too polite.” Jonathan Jones says the art world needs its own Hatchet Job of the Year prize, which praises fierce literature reviews. “Wouldn’t it actually be fun … to burst a few inflated reputations?”

Billionaire art collector Leon Black has purchased Phaidon Press, the international art book publisher. Insiders claim that Black’s wealth and resources may help the company expand its reach by distributing books about lesser-known artists.

“Art is what we do,” Carl Andre once said. “Culture is what is done to us.” Cultural critic Lewis Hyde, invoking the quote, adds, “It’s the ‘done to us’ part I’d like the citizen to avoid; let us be the constant makers of our cultural world.” In a recent conversation about creativity and copyright, democracy and the commons, Hyde expanded on the ideas in his book Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership.

For 12 years, Hernando Guanlao has been running an unofficial library outside his Manila home. With no lending rules, you’d think the books would be stolen, but what started as a collection of 200 volumes has instead grown to around 3,000.

“You’re not impaling Hitler or protecting the Shire from Saruman,” writes J. Robert Lennon “You’re reviewing a book.” He argues there’s a good way to write a negative review and a bad one. A cardinal rule: “Don’t be a dick.”