The London Times: “Hall really wants to be the new David Mitchell, a writer who can give an unforgettable voice to, say, a floating quantum thought particle, but has neither his searing intelligence nor his ability. We are left with only stratospheric pretentious-ness, where the writer’s barely assimilated reading and capacity to invent empty tricks stalk the pages like ghosts….Nevertheless, this is an important cultural marker – of the triumph of the PR machine over that poor, passé little thing called writing.”

Ouch.

While Sam Tanenhaus remains stubborn and ignorant about the possibilities of confluence, smarter book review editors are enlisting bloggers for their expertise.

• 1984: the complete film online.
• Eight essential Christopher Walken sketches.
• 720 Dunk
• A rooster breaks up a fight between two rabbits.
• Full Metal Jacket in five seconds.
• What happened to Street Fighter III?

Laura Zigman: “Then, as Laura’s Animal Husbandry disappeared, replaced by lots and lots of other more chick-litty books, Laura was only occasionally included in the chick-lit round ups. Laura never knew how to feel about this — that is, part of her was hurt that she wasn’t included when other lists of chick lit writers were named since she felt she was kind of at the forefront of the genre and felt left out. But another part of her was relieved that she wasn’t included because most of the articles about chick lit were very negative, so maybe the fact that she wasn’t mentioned was a good thing.”

Ed never refers to himself in the third person and certainly doesn’t whine when he’s forgotten. You see, this is not the reason why Ed writes.