• n+1 offers this online offering from Issue 4 on Gilbert Sorrentino, commenting on the grand irony that many of us learned the news while lost miasmically in the BEA glitz. (via the Rake)
• Jessa Crispin talks with Jennifer Howard and investigates the current rise of NYTBR-bashing. I’m glad that somebody has looked into this because, as Jessa quite rightly observes, it seems that Tanenhaus is more concerned with attracting attention through sloppily penned contrarian reviews rather than putting out a quality literary publication. Incidentally, I have put in interview requests to talk with both Rachel Donadio and Dwight Garner (since Tanenhaus refuses to talk with me), both senior editors of the NYTBR, and give them a chance to respond to the many criticisms that have leveled the Times‘ way. But both seem to be regularly “unavailable.” The hilarious thing is that I’ve had greater luck (and certainly spent far less time) booking Dave Barry, Bret Easton Ellis and William T. Vollmann for Segundo). If such self-importance and diffidence among the NYTBR is the norm, and if the NYTBR‘s top brass lacks the maturity or the courage to have a respectful disagreement, then it’s small wonder why the NYTBR is becoming the laughing stock of the literati.
• Gwenda Bond points to this incredible story of a Pablo Neruda reading being rediscovered on tape, with the audio described as “very clear.” The tape is being remastered and is, for decorum’s sake, well out of my hands. The last thing the literary world needs right now is an Adolescent Audio Experiment involving Neruda. But then again…
• The Scotsman profiles A.L. Kennedy’s solo show, appearing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hopefully, certain Fringe attendees might offer us a report.
• Heidi Benson reports on the California Book Awards, which I’m regrettably going to miss. But it’s this Thursday at the Commonwealth Club for anyone who’s interested.
• As Mark Thwaite observes, the Guardian is late to the Sorrentino obit party. But its sleight pales in comparison to the Gray Lady’s almost total disregard.
• Another day, another awards ceremony. Ian McEwan and Sue Prideaux have won the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes. Given the way the Brits hand out awards these days, in ten years, I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single writer who hasn’t garnered an accolade.
• Lee Goldberg on why JMS’s POD success is more of a fluke than a revolution.
• And this is the theatre geek in me talking, but a new Broadway run of Simon Gray’s excellent play Butley debuts on October 26. In an extremely interesting casting move, Nathan Lane is playing the titular character, presumably tapping into the same viscera that gave us Sheridan Whiteside a few years back.

• Over at Litkicks, Levi Asher begins his Overrated Writers Series. So far, Philip Roth and Joan Didion have been taken to task, the latter in particular for The Year of Magical Thinking. But I must disagree with Mr. Asher, largely because of my own personal stake on the subject. After all, I’ve written bravely about my own neuroses before and, while I haven’t had my literary status catapaulted into a higher orbit (although I did win a $15 Macy’s gift card for “After Blog Life,” which I cashed in for a Jerry Garcia necktie, which then caused me to write a 4,000 word essay about how I was frightened and tortured by the necktie and had to see a therapist after concluding that the necktie was diminishing my erotic dreams with various starlets and intellectuals — all this to be published in next week’s Penny Saver in abridged form), there is nothing more necessary than hardworking professionals (and that includes prolific litbloggers) being misidentified as literary geniuses.
• Derik Badman confesses that the Fantagraphics collections have shifted his view on Peanuts, which makes me ponder whether it’s all in the presentation. Would comics garner greater respect among the literati if they were published with the same respect one finds in Modern Library volumes?
• Alexander McCall Smith is interviewed by The Hindu. Apparently, one of the reasons he’s so prolific is because he writes 1,000 words a day and not bothering to edit what he writes. Which suggests to me that an unexpected turn to Christianity and a kooky novel about Jesus’s early days may just be in his future.
• The Scotsman peers inside British small presses and concludes that the Internet has been one of the primary reasons why small presses have been able to catch up with the big boys. Well, that and the fact that small presses have more interesting names. I mean, Houghton Mifflin doesn’t exactly roll off the tip of the tongue, does it? Even as an adult, I still have great difficulties, often mispronouncing it as “MILFin.” But this may have something to do with the porn stash on my hard drive. Soft Skull, on the other hand…
• I didn’t get a chance to get Charles D’Ambrosio on tape while at BEA, but thankfully the folks at Powell’s have D’Ambrosio talking about his “first time.” I haven’t heard the clip yet. And I’m not certain what this means exactly, but I do know that D’Ambrosio doesn’t bullshit around. So perhaps there’s something salacious in there.
• Another article telling us how Oh So Scary digital publishing is. I don’t get this. Really, digital publishing is a bit like riding a bicycle. The first time, you’re a quavering child wondering just how a bipedal life form can balance upon such a seemingly baroque contraption. By the fourth or fifth time, you realize how rote it is and you’ve completely forgotten about the fears and anxieties that caused you to take the plunge in the first place. Unless you’re like me and you’re still frightened by the fact that you once rode a BMX bike at an age when your peers got around by car.

• Congratulations Jenny D!
• BSG S3 details (via Gwenda)
• No, it’s not just you, Tayari. For your consideration: Colson Whitehead’s John Henry Days or Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying.
• Elizabeth Crane on A History of Violence: “Like, if I suddenly found out Ben had a previous life in the Philadelphia mob (I didn’t think so, but I double checked, and he denied it), I think I would be angry about being deceived but I would not express my anger by having sex with him on the stairs after he tried to strangle me.”
• Hedy Weiss on Henry Kisor.
• “For the part of her book that is set on a ranch, Cowart’s research involved visiting a Tifton rodeo where she complied the phone numbers of all the cowboys.” But is this research or a disingenuous way to hook up with men in chaps?
• The Courier Mail reviews The History of Love, but half of the review involves talking about JSF and Krauss. While there’s always room for a little salacious tidbits, I have to ask whether the Courier Mail is running a book review section or a gossip column.
• The Sci Fi Traveling Road Show: a podcast dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror coming from small press. (via Locus)
• Neil Gaiman in podcast form.
• The New Yorker blows more imagery on Phil Collins than the man deserves: “His head is small and round, like a globe, and closely shaved, so that the dark patterns of hair suggest land and the bald parts suggest water.” WTF? Is Alec Wilkinson a new Conde Nast hire or is it still New Yorker policy to find ridiculous profundity in bland and soulless performers?
• How cool is this? Of Montreal were hired as wedding singers. (via the betrothed Tito Perez)
• Sometimes Gawker comes through.
• Booksellers are pissed by the Sunday Times paid placement article.
• Finally, Sarvas comes around.

• As everyone knows, the writers-to-general population ratio in Brooklyn is considerably higher than, say, the affluent liberal-to-general population ratio of Ross, California. Thankfully, publishing houses are picking up the slack.
• Sarah has the goods on the Dagger nominees.
• It’s an utter mystery why DC Comics didn’t explore this possibility years ago.
• Chick lit. Lad lit. Chica lit.
• This week in David Mitchell interviews: Arthur Salm. (See also Callie’s continuing series.)
• The infamous Bob Hoover talks with Richard Ford and gets very little outside of “It’s a big book, it’s an ambitious book and it’s also the last book I’m going to write about Frank Bascombe, so I want it to be as good as I can get it.” Thanks, Bob, for firing off those hardballs! See you in the batting cages after our game of mini golf!
• The Age contemplates Beckett.
• Canadian writer Charlotte Gill has won the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Prize for Ladykiller.
• The Companion to British History took 30 years to write, killed at least sixteen people, cost well over four million pounds, was responsible for that New Coke idea, has permitted Brett Ratner to find work, is responsible for the abject hot dog to hot dog buns packaging shortfall, has caused several Jack Russell terriers to be sacrificed to an unspecified volcano god, and is known to cause blindness.
• Ginsberg’s “Howl”: fifty years later.
• Beth Orton wants to write books. (via LHB)
• Details on the new Mountain Goats album.
• Yo, New Yorker, blog articles are so six years ago.
• And can we declare a moratorium on recognizing Katie Couric? You’d think that Couric was either a conversational genius or a former Senator, given MSNBC’s ridiculous spread.

Yes, that’s right. We’re slacking today. So without further ado, here is today’s much delayed roundup:

• Scott points to this Alex Ross post on music representative of 20th century composition. Ross includes Björk, Shostakovich, Philip Glass and Miles Davis. But, most criminally, Ross avoids what is arguably the most representative song of the 20th century: Ohio Express’s “Yummy Yummy Yummy (I’ve Got Love in My Tummy.” The song has long been derided as bubblegum pop, but I feel that this song’s seminal message (“Love, you’re such a sweet thing / Good enough to eat thing”) is misunderstood. It represents, in part, the triumph of emotions over coherent sentences. Now in what other way can the 20th century’s advancement in technology be better represented? Particularly since many of the machines (such as the computer and the television) are so yummy when we first encounter them? And that the machines were, in part, utilized to generate so much fast food for the human population? Joey Levine and Arthur Resnick (the song’s composers) were prophets!
• Frances Dinkelspiel suggests that Telegraph Avenue’s counter-cultural movement may have contributed to the Cody’s closing. My feeling is that Cody’s shifted their main store to San Francisco because they needed to make some serious bank to catch up with the financial shortfall. The Stockton Street location is in the center of the Powell Street craziness and has something that Telegraph Avenue does not: loads of people from the Financial District coming in on their lunch hour.
• Over at the LBC, Dan Wickett’s interview with Gina Frangello is now up. A podcast interview will follow.
• Is modern society on the path to oblivion? Steve Connor talks with Jared Diamond.
• Wendi Kaufman talks with Joyce Carol Oates.
• There’s been a drop in books published. Only 172,000 books were published in 2005, compared with 190,000 published in 2004. Of course, this isn’t too serious of an issue. It was an election year and everyone felt that they had to write a book about politics. Rest assured, it will happen again in 2008. Nothing to see here. Move along. (via GalleyCat)
• Oh man, I am so fucked if “excessive use of adult websites” is compulsive behavior. (via Scribbling Woman)
• 10 Character Actors Who Should Be In Every Movie. I concur with Charlotte Rampling.
• Hope for the midterm elections?
• Love-Lines: tracking what the blogosphere loves with a funky interface.
• The Morning News offers an interesting article on circuit bending.
• Lord Goldsmith calls for Guantanamo to close. About five years too late.
• What readers want out of a news site in 2016. The major conclusion from WSJ readers? More telegenic reporters.
• Appalling.