• Lest you conclude that BEA was the sole locale for publishers to unload their neuroses, the Globe and Mail reminds us that people are bitching just as ardently about BookExpo Canada. Bitching Canadians? Is it possible? One wonders whether a BookExpo Mexico or a BookExpo Germany would spawn such ennui. Is the North American publishing industry hopelessly moribund? Perhaps allowing those carefully tailored publishing execs to immolate a piñata or affording steins and tankards to panelists in an Oktoberfest-style atmosphere might make everyone a mite more jocular.
• The Lotus Lyceum: a salon for fantasy fiction. Haute couture meets orc culture? (via MetaxuCafe)
• I haven’t yet had the time to peruse the Oxford American issue that was kindly sent to me, but thankfully Scott is one step ahead of me.
• Jeff VanderMeer needs dead people.
• Nice try at a metaphor, Ms. Doughty. But unfortunately, most people want the Atkins Diet.
• Frances Dinkelspiel has been chronicling the end of Cody’s.
• We were too burned out to have any meaningful conversation with the man when he came through town, but thankfully the Villager got around to chatting with Gary Shteyngart.
• “A Life in Books” (via This Space)
• Sarah has a new story in Spinetingler.
• Kassia offers more thoughts on Google POD.
• Critical Mass continues its NYTBR contemporary fiction watch and reveals why Andrew Sean Greer chose Kavalier and Clay.
• Why Internet dating isn’t regulated.
• Forget Snakes on a Plane. Try Whales on a Date.
• Cheryl Reed is the new Sun-Times book editor.
• The Ann Arbor News talks with Mark Binelli. Our own impromptu BEA interview with Binelli will emerge in the next Bat Segundo podcast.

A new installment of Mr. Esposito’s The Quarterly Conversation is out, with a list of books that, unlike the Times, name-checks David Markson, Zadie Smith, Gilbert Sorrentino, Margaret Atwood and Mary Gaitskill.

As Ron has observed, the the NYTBR has culled together blogosphere “reactions” (which strangely refers to Scott’s blog as “Conversational Name;” do you “regret the error,” Sam?) to their Best Fiction Survey and the more stinging criticisms from Levi Asher, Tayari Jones, Galleycat and here (among many others) have been elided from the bunch. Not that it’s any particular surprise. Although one would think that an editor who has publicly declared his own book review section “the best book review section in the United States” might find more inspiration in John Leonard than with Dimitry Shepilov.

[UPDATE: As of today (June 8), the Times changed Scott’s blog to its correct name, “Conversational Reading.” Curiously, however, the Times didn’t list this change among its Corrections. Does Tanenhaus believe himself to be above the fray? Apparently so. Or perhaps he simply can’t bring himself to “regret the error.” It might just spoil his lunch.]

Diet Coke + Mentos = Uncanny Beauty. (via MeFi)

Of course, these guys took it to the next level.