Roundup - Reluctant Habits

“The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick” by R. Crumb (via Rebecca’s Pocket)
The scoop on Norman Mailer’s next book. Looks like the old dog might be competing with Tom Wolfe for “worst last novel ever.”
Douglas Coupland opens a can of whoop-ass on Canadian literature. It’s only available through the New York Times Select portal, but the gist here is that he’s declared it to be at the mercy of the Canadian government.
The Guardian attempts to find patterns in UK bestseller lists. I know a few conspiracy theorists they might want to consult first.
C. Max Magee on hard-to-pronounce literary names.
Newspapers are starting to discover the Internet. At this rate, maybe four years from now, they’ll discover that the Smashing Pumpkins broke up.
I’m surprised nobody has made the correlation between YouTube and America’s Funniest Home Videos before. Is there some pattern to be found in these videos?
More on McCraw. It seems that McCraw has now sued former editor Jerry Roberts for $500,000. (via Romenesko)
“Once More with Hobbits” (via Gwenda)
Rick Kleffel is reporting from WorldCon.
Carolyn Kellogg on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh casting call.
“The Pressure to Be Exotic” (via Booksquare)
Novelist Masako Bando has confessed that she threw kittens over a cliff that her pet cats gave birth to. As publicity stunts go, I’d say this was maybe a tad extreme. Why couldn’t Bando take out a full-page ad somewhere or get in a physical altercation the way that most batshit crazy authors do? The big question: how will the bar be raised here?
MySpace: The Magazine.