- Thanks to some technical trickery, I am now stealing wi-fi on my relocated desktop computer. This casual pilfering should last only a few days, and I have tried to keep this bandwidth theft to a minimum. Which means that email is spotty these days. (I should also point out that I am not really answering email because of this thing called settling in.) But now that we’re all here (or, rather, some of us are here; many are at BEA), let’s get down to business.
- Here is what I am apparently missing in Los Angeles: A booth where you can get your teeth whitened for $99. Dozens of dinosaur finger puppets. Sherman Alexie exclaiming, “Holy motherfuck! That’s Judy motherfucking Blume!” Faux surprise over the Scott McClellan book. Prince a reader? Litbloggers at BEA and not one of them is typing. The Rapture is Coming! Intriguing Germans with ridiculously named websites. A Mac in tow but no posts to show. A partnership between Amazon and S&S. Neil Gaiman stalkers. A women sprawled out on the floor before a taco run. Well, so far, it doesn’t seem all that different from a sunny afternoon in New York. But here’s Callie with no doubt the first of several reports! I hold out faith that prodigious reporting will expand beyond the established quirky details.
- Marc Weingarten writes about McSweeney’s, discovering Yannick Murphy and other fine authors two years after everybody else has. For his next piece, Mr. Weingarten will be writing about this really cool new band, LCD Soundsystem!
- Jeff points to a bookstore trick now becoming a more increasingly common practice: more bookstores are returning books 90 days before the tab is due.
- There is little left to mine, Mr. Sedaris. Please draw your attentions outward and evolve as a writer so that your humor can once again flourish. (via Quill & Quire
- Nicholson Baker reviewing in the NYTBR? Has hell frozen over? (Richard Russo and Marisha Pessl are in there too, making me wonder if Dwight Garner is turning the joint into a literary answer to those periodic Battle of the Network Stars specials that once aired on ABC. As it so happens, two of these reviews are quite good. You can probably guess which of the three is written with abject narcissism, instead of insight in mind.
- Anthony Lane on Sex and the City. The last paragraph in particular is dead on. (via The Old Hag)
- Maud wants to say just one word. Are you listening?
- The Reading and Book Buying Habits of Americans. (via Mark Athitakis, who has a few conclusions)
© 2008, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.
