• Amardeep Singh reflects on Amrita Pratim.
• Microsoft is scanning the British Library.
• As if a film division wasn’t enough, Random House has responded to the Google Print flap with an e-book micropayment plan. HarperCollins has followed suit.
• Jenny Davidson has the skinny on Lethem’s MIT appearance.
• Jeff’s also participating in NaDruWriNi tomorrow night. This is quite generous of him, as someone is going to have to keep Pinky, Gwenda and me in check.
• The Top 100 DJS of 2005. Sadly, Dr. Johnny Fever didn’t make the list.
• Apparently, William Burroughs made a few short films.
• Chinua Achebe says it’s no big deal if oral storytelling dies out. Oral sex, on the other hand…
• Alan Moore talks about magic and porn. In other words, the usual stuff.
• A new one-man play from Gareth Armstrong called Shylock offers a new take on Shakespeare’s notorious character. Will Fagin be next?
• Alan Hollinghurst: upstaged by the White Sox.
• Murakami at Tufts. (via M.A.O.)
• Scribbling Woman explains the benefits of blogging.
• And, for tomorrow evening, a handy list of NaDruWriNi participants.

It’s a very hectic afternoon, so here’s a quick roundup:

• Rambling African Geek has initiated a series of lengthy posts concerning race and science fiction. He argues that, outside of invasion locales, science fiction authors have failed to paint a portrait of Africa and that he is “virtually invisible to the perceived SF mainstream, which is overwhelmingly white, hetero, male and only interested in stories by and about other white hetero males.”
• Obvious headline of the week: Blogging moves into mainstream. I guess news travels slower in Ohio.
• At long last, Jonathan Coe has completed The Closed Circle, the sequel to The Rotters’ Club.
• Galleycat reports that Peter Gethers, the “creative genius” who unleashed Kate & Allie will be heading some motion picture entity called “Random House Films.”
• Apparently, Margaret Atwood isn’t the only one writing about Penelope. Children’s novelist Adèle Geras also has a book coming out.
• In Australia, it looks like a new antiterrorism law could have a major effect on the definition of “sedition,” which may affect an Aussie novelist’s freedom of expression.
• A Gore Vidal biography is making the rounds.
• The BBC notes that there’s only one work of fiction on the Guardian’s First Book Award list.
• Tangerine Muumuu is doing the NaNoWriMo. Some years ago, I publicly posted a NaNoWriMo effort in process. Unfortunately, I was prevented from completing the extremely weird Oedipal narrative that resulted due to my apartment catching on fire. I wish her well.
• And speaking of aborted creative efforts, Quiddity reports that Terry Gilliam is reviving The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Maybe.

• Indian author Amrita Pritam has died.
• The Times profiles John Banville.
• An early review of Michael Winterbottom’s Tristram Shandy adaptation.
• Seth interviewed about Wimbledon Green.
• Three C.S. Lewis bios compared.

• NaNoWriMo (not to be confused with NaDruWriNi, which we’ll be participating in this Saturday) begins today. Among the participants: Pete Anderson.
• It looks like 2006 will offer the return of Darren Aronofsky. Aside from directing an episode of Lost and overseeing the release of the years-in-production The Fountain, Aronofsky is in negotiations to direct Shannon Burke’s as-yet-unpublished novel, Black Flies.
• More on Lewis Libby as a novelist from Der Spiegel: Apparently, he composed such passages as “One of her breasts now hung loosely in his hand near his face and he knew not how best to touch her.” If Libby isn’t a shoe-in for some kind of postdated Bad Sex Award, then I don’t know who is.
• This may be the most frightening Guinness world record ever: L. Ron Hubbard is the world’s most translated author.
• Rebecca Traister weighs in on chick lit. She goes one step further than anyone who participated in yesterday’s interesting discussion, suggesting that today’s chick lit is recording women’s history.
• More on Anthony Burgess from the Belfast Telegraph.
• The Austin-American Statesman reports on the Texas Book Festival.
• The fall of indie publishing? (via Jeff)
• And Scott Turow considers himself a war novelist these days. No seriously.