C. Max Magee makes Poets & Writers, chronicling the rise of Library Thing.

Williamette Week Online: “The thing that I want to find out is who’s doing the entry for butter. There’s an entry for butter! What would motivate someone to do that? There’s an entry for waffles; I cannot fathom what that person’s motive is. And it’s good—it’s got the history of waffles!”

The motive, Mr. Klosterman, is that inquisitive people are actually interested in the minutiae of our world. The purpose, Mr. Klosterman, is because understanding how such things like waffles and butter came into being provides larger insights into human innovation and invention. (Watch James Burke’s Connections, if you don’t get this. I’m recommending a television program for you instead of a book, because literacy seems to elude you.)

Incidentally, I have requested an interview with Chuck Klosterman. This is the second time I have tried to talk with him as he’s come through my town on a book tour. And while the Scribner people have been very kind and they are busting their humps off, all interview requests, apparently, have to be cleared through Klosterman. Klosterman refuses to respond to my emails, which leads me to believe, all of his assertions of manhood and “working out” to the contrary, that he is too cowardly to talk with an interviewer who won’t kiss his ass.

So I hereby call out Chuck Klosterman publicly on my blog. I know you’re coming through San Francisco next week, Chuck. If you’re truly a man, you’ll sit down and talk with me and answer my questions. Or do you really think you’re better than John Updike, Erica Jong, Sarah Waters, T.C. Boyle, William T. Vollmann, Octavia Butler, Norman Solomon, and Dave Barry?

Dempsey scores! More here.

Never mind. We lost.

The Myths of Nonprofit Literary Publishing: “If a for-profit group had grants, no income tax liability and a free workforce, someone would be making good money and fewer small businesses would go under. Why does a nonprofit have these savings and still claim to be too poor to pay its bills, namely the writing content that serves as the very foundation of the publication?” (via The Publishing Spot)

There is some speculation that Kate Morton, author of The Shifting Fog, has one-upped Chloe Harper’s $1 million advice from 2002, collecting the largest publishing bounty ever granted to a debut Australian novelist. The book proposal started off as an elaborate, small-time Ponzi scam so that Morton could garner a bit of pocket money out of the Australian publishing industry. To everyone’s surprise, while waiting for the checks to come in the mail, Morton ended up writing her novel. And the deal became legit shortly after Allen & Unwin admired Morton’s inventive approach to sales. They responded with largesse.