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Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books


Reading list in advertorial supplement contains 66% made up books by real authors.

On Sunday, the Chicago Sun-Times published an advertorial summer reading list containing at least 10 fake books attributed to real authors, according to multiple reports on social media. The newspaper's uncredited "Summer reading list for 2025" supplement recommended titles including "Tidewater Dreams" by Isabel Allende and "The Last Algorithm" by Andy Weir—books that don't exist and were created out of thin air by an AI system. In the supplement, the books listed by authors Isabel Allende, Andy Weir, Brit Bennett, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Min Jin Lee, Percival Everett, Delia Owens, Rumaan Alam, Rebecca Makkai, and Maggie O’Farrell are confabulated, while books listed by authors Françoise Sagan, Ray Bradbury, Jess Walter, André Aciman, and Ian McEwan are real.

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