The fake summer reading list: AI, outrage, and the decline of trust

This story is so wild. It started, as these things often do, with a list. A sunny-season tradition: the trusted newspaper summer reading list. But this year, one went viral for all the wrong reasons.

The Chicago Sun-Times published a feature recommending new books for summer 2025. Just five of the 15 titles were real. Ray Bradbury wrote Dandelion Wine, Jess Walter penned Beautiful Ruins and Françoise Sagan  Bonjour Tristesse.

The rest? Pure fiction. Literally. Titles like Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende (which she never wrote) and The Rainmakers by Pulitzer-winner Percival Everett (also fake) were invented by AI and published as if they were real.

Can ChaptGPT to find you a literary agent?

I asked ChaptGPT to find me a literary agent. While it couldn't accomplish this task, I thought its four tips on finding a literary agent were worth sharing. 

1. Research Literary Agents: Use literary agency databases, sites, and directories to find agents specialising in romance and comedy genres. Websites like the acknowledgments section of rom-com novels are similar to yours. Authors often thank their agents, providing you with potential names to research.