• John Banville on House of Meetings.
• Two more lists from John Freeman: the L.A. Times Books Finalists and Granta’s Best American Writers Under 35. On the latter, JSF may have been too obvious a choice, but there are some writers of interest.
• Tayari Jones: “On a few occasions, I’ve been forced to write the questions out so the interviewer can have something to say!” If this doesn’t reveal the sad state of literary journalism, I don’t know what does.
• Mike Harrison on Toby Litt’s latest: “It’s as if Lars von Trier & the young JG Ballard have been let loose in the gleaming corridors of some NHS flagship & are now being stalked by David Cronenberg.”
• More author oppression in Egypt.
• A stripper turned novelist has won £10,000 and she didn’t even have to take her clothes off.
• Louis Menand: “Is there anything that is not a quotation?”
• An Octavia E. Butler Memorial Tribute Fundraiser (via Locus)
• Silverblatt talks with Gore Vidal.
• Erin O’Brien reviews Liquid Love: The G-Spot Explosion.
• Scott Esposito on James Wood on Pynchon = a literary three-way? Well, no not exactly, but Scott raises some interesting points about “hysterical realism.”
• The New York Times discovers there are literary podcasts. About three years after the rest of us.
• W.H.Auden was a spy! (via Bookninja)
• Porn-o-matic.
• Tom Cruise will not sully the Watchmen film adaptation. (via The Beat)
• Yes, we had a minor trembler here in San Francisco last night. Since this makes two minor earthquakes in a week, I suppose the time has come to prepare an earthquake kit, which means, for the most part, restocking the bar.

© 2007, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.