As of late last night, my last guest post went up over at LitKicks. Although informative, it's also a pretty funny (I think) spin on some of the shenanigans that go on when publishers acquire authors.

Another day, another guest post at LitKicks.

Not much has been going on around here because I have been participating in the ongoing LitKicks discussion: "Does Literary Fiction Suffer from Dysfunctional Pricing?" For this round, Levi has asked me to create a series of guest posts in order to provide readers with a glimpse at the financial workings of a fantasy publishing company. The first post went up a few minutes ago, so please head on over and check it out.

What a grumpy, old bookman!

Various people are asking whether trade paperbacks can save literary fiction (see Galleycat for a summary).

The answer is no. Nothing can save literary fiction. It isn't a question of format or cost; it's a question of boredom.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, and you can even fool the same people for several years -- or books -- at a time. But eventually the penny drops.

As I mentioned yesterday, I do enjoy the occasional genre romp because sometimes you simply have to read for entertainment value alone. However, too much genre—thrillers, for example—is what's really boring. Most commercial bestsellers are so formulaic that you can pretty much predict the entire plot from a brief scan of the jacket copy. And reading nothing but the same exact books with the same exact characters and the same exact plots over and over and over again is what's foolish. Mixing it up keeps it interesting, so why not grab some literary fiction that might make you think?

Ashamedly, I have to admit to finding Cormac McCarthy kind of unreadable. This Coen brothers adaptation of No Country for Old Men, however, looks like a winner.

Happy post-Labor Day. I hope the working world had an enjoyable three-day weekend break. Since I only work when I feel like it, I spent the day laboring in the garden to make room for several iris rhizomes gifted by a neighbor. And then I got drunk. Go me!

Over at Literary Kicks, Levi has begun attempting to answer the question: Does literary fiction suffer from dysfunctional pricing? Of course, I have lots of thoughts on the subject and will share them eventually. In the meantime, check out what a publisher, soon-to-be novelist, and literary agent have contributed to the discussion.

POD Critic is wise...

Now I know I’ve touched on this particular subject in previous posts, but I have to ask the question again, “What is the purpose of a novel?” This is not necessarily related to another question, “Why have you decided to write a novel?” The second question can have various answers, many, if not all of them involving some personal agenda on the part of the writer or writers in question. But the answer to the first question, and in all truth, there really is only one answer (which I’ve supplied in this particular post already) is to entertain. Keeping this in mind, that a novel’s main—and in most cases nowadays—sole purpose, is to entertain, a writer should be able to approach a book with this decidedly singular agenda, abutting it and supplementing it with experimentation, lofty artistic objectives, or other personal goals, so long as the primary agenda remains in full frontal view.

So far, I'm having a bad, bad day. Rather than drag you along for the ride, here are a few things to check out in what are surely more pleasant environs.

• A bunch of people have already linked to this opinion piece by Tom McCarthy called "Publishing? It's an art form." In it, he gives a well-written and succinct "neener neener" to successful writers, mainstream publishers, and big box booksellers. Being a serious artist among philistines is arduous, but at least his smugness survived.

  Also, The Elegant Variation reports that Soft Skull will publish McCarthy's non-fiction book Tintin and the Secret of Literature in the United States. As a child, I missed out on most children's books because money went for essentials and our public library was limited. I had never heard of Tintin until a trip to France during high school, so the cartoons aren't bookmarked in the nostalgic pages of my youth. According to McCarthy, though, Tintin's creator deserves a place among literary giants Dickens, Flaubert, Faulkner, and Pynchon.

• I love this see-saw bookshelf. Too bad I don't have enough space in my living room or an extra $1900 in mad money.
• While at Barnes & Noble recently, I loitered in the magazine section to read Steven King's "The Gingerbread Girl" in this month's Esquire. It didn't grab my interest within the first two pages, so I put the magazine back. Adventures in Reading, however, "was entertained the entire way through." Also at this blog is a brief review of King's The Dark Half, a book I read long, long ago but only remember from the awful movie version starring Timothy Hutton.
• Several months back, my dad did a stint in the hospital for gall bladder surgery. He has always loved Shakespeare, so it didn't surprise me to see The Tragedy of King Lear in his room during a visit. However, I was shocked when I discovered it was a SparkNotes No Fear Shakespeare edition which features the original text on the right with plain English on the left. I understand side-by-side translations of foreign language titles, but, come on. English to English?

  Despite my dad's already good understanding of Shakespeare's writings, he said the simplified text helped him see certain subtleties lost among metaphor and ornate language. I bought his defense, but it didn't stop me from laughing while browsing through the book. For example, this line appears in Lear's first scene of Act II:

  Shakespeare - Edmund: Look, sir, I bleed.

  Translation - Edmund: Father, I am bleeding.

  Duh.

  I am reminded of when an ex-boyfriend took me to see Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. It was early on in our ten-year dalliance, so he was surely trying to impress me since he had little interest in Shakespeare. As we left the theater, I talked about being thrilled by the adaptation, especially the handling of the Saint Crispin's Day speech. The ex's thoughts: "Was the movie in English? I didn't understand anything they said. It needed subtitles." We still talk from time to time, so perhaps I'll bring up our date and suggest he might enjoy Manga Shakespeare (via The Valve).

So, after a week of being occupied by everything but the computer, I am spending a little time this morning catching up on what I missed. One of my first reads was PC World's "100 Blogs We Love," because you can never have too many feeds in your RSS reader. Unfortunately, the list consists of the same old stuff everyone has already heard about and not a single book-related site is on it. Snore!

Of course, I was very pleased to see Reality Blurred, the definitive reality TV weblog, among the Arts and Culture sites. Reality Blurred is run by my friend Andy, who got me into this blogging thing. I was there the day the site debuted and was amazed when he showed me how a few clicks could let loose anyone's thoughts on an unsuspecting Internet. And look how far he's gone with it.

Not a lot of TV watching happens at Casa BookBlog since I own an inventory of unread books to rival a small bookstore. Despite the handicap, I did manage to tip off Reality Blurred on Bestseller, a book-themed reality TV show currently in development. As Andy reported yesterday, Simon Cowell of "Idol" planned to "pitch the idea to U.S. networks in June." If it makes it to the tube, I will have to put aside the reading to tune in. The auditions are sure to be like watching a living, breathing slush pile with the added bonus of actually seeing crazy writers explain away their bad prose.

According to the editors of the American Heritage dictionaries, these are the 100 words every high school graduate should know.

Does anyone actually say "jejune" aloud these days? I'm sure it's been more than 10 years since I heard it in conversation, from the mouth of a former manager who spent his time criticizing me when I was around and going through my desk when I wasn't. At a business dinner, he once asked if the group would like to get dessert in order to "ameliorate the meal." Such awkward use of language caused me to not take anything he said seriously, and I was convinced he had a secret word-of-the-day calendar.

Full disclosure: I had to look up "bowdlerize" and "moiety."

Via Books, Words, and Writing.

I have a lot (TONS!) of things to do today because I am hosting the family for a Mother's Day BBQ on Sunday. The house is a wreck, flats of flowers need to be planted, a bird's nest in a bad spot in the shed should be relocated, grass must be mowed, and the yard has to be cleared of piles of wood being stored for next winter. There's a chance of rain for this afternoon and tomorrow, so the outside stuff has to be handled ASAP.

While I'm out working my butt off, here are a few bookish things to keep you busy:

• Our discussion of The Wasp Factory is still going. If you've read the book, please feel free to drop in and leave a comment. However, the thread contains huge spoilers. I wouldn't recommend reading through it before having finished the book.
• Interested in starting your own online book club? Check out Curling Up, a new forum site for people who love talking books.
• I Feel Pithy Book Blog is running a book drive to benefit the Oasis Youth Shelter in Ft. Myers, Florida. Find out more about it and, seriously, consider making a donation by purchasing an item from the Amazon wish list. Between now and July 13th, your donation will be matched by the owner of the blog. Get your give on.
• I've been meaning to post about Library Thing's UnSuggester, but Bookninja beat me to it. If you hated The Da Vinci Code or wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, you might want to read some of these books. However, considering its sales numbers, I bet it's on a lot more bookshelves than the 12,000+ Library Thing members who have admitted to it.
• Speaking of bad writing, poor John Grisham. Looking at the top 20 most available Bookins books, he has the honor of having 10 titles on the list. His books are clearly not keepers.
• According to Stephen Colbert, we are winning the war on reading. "People are going to read what Oprah tells them to read and they are going to like it." Guest Salman Rushdie says he no longer needs to worry about the fatwa and brings Paris Hilton's memoirs to the world's attention.
• Are you a frustrated writer? Maybe a video called "How to Write the Great American Novel" will help. After watching it, I'm now considering becoming a novelist. I regularly have to remind friends/family of my genius and get plenty of sleep, so I must be qualified.
• Plotastic is a blog run by an aspiring novelist who needs some ideas. He's conducting a poll to find out what you think his book should be about. He should watch the above video. If I understood it properly, alliteration and cowboy chaps are more important than plot.
• And don't forget. Our discussion of Tom McCarthy's Remainder will begin on May 21st. Shouldn't you be reading it instead of this?

I've seen links to The Colbert Report's "Meta-Free-Phor-All" popping up around the Internet, and I finally sat down to watch it this morning. Although Stephen Colbert and Sean Penn are both pretty funny, former U.S. Poet Laureate and New Jerseyan Robert Pinsky has the best lines.

This reminds me. I need to get through George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's Metaphors We Live By so I can return it to its owner. I'm not a bibliokleptomaniac.

Best. Tribute. Ever.

And I bet Vonnegut is looking down and loving it. Mastermind and author Eric Spitznagel explains:

The idea was cooked up several months ago, over far too many beers in a San Francisco bar. Some writer friends and I were enjoying a post-book reading cocktail, and though I can't recall anymore who brought it up (or why), we began discussing Kurt Vonnegut's asshole. Not his actual asshole, of course. Rather, his infamous asshole doodle, which first appeared in his brilliant novel Breakfast of Champions. (link)

If I were to draw a picture of my own, ahem, anus, it would look something like this: · . I retain everything.

Despite dismissing Bookins based on a quick initial impression, Eddie found my post on book swapping interesting enough to check out each service. He eventually joined Bookins and asked me to also sign up so he could get referral points. I have since traded about a dozen titles through them, and here are some of the new impressions I have of the service.

Books I Have Shipped

By far, the best thing about Bookins is how easy it makes clearing out book clutter. Doing a quick look around, I currently possess more than 500 books and 0 bookshelves. As a result, books sit atop every flat surface, fill all the nooks and crannies in the house, and pile up based on a sorting system understood only by me. In my office, a stack doubles as an occasional table. In the living room, another stack is the perfect place to display trinkets at varying heights. I even have two piles of professional titles set up as a retaining wall to hold back the slippery slide of newspapers and magazines.

I'm not a collector. Nearly all of the above books haven't yet been read, and I plan to eventually get around to each of them. If I have finished a title and decide to give it away, it goes into one of two trading piles on top of the stereo. The first is dedicated to those in good condition for listing on Bookins while the other consists of the casualties. As an example of a casualty, I have a slightly bloodied (from a paper cut) copy of Zadie Smith's White Teeth. I'd never subject a stranger to such grossness, but relatives or friends, who aren't afraid of my pathogens, might want it.

After receiving notification from Bookins, shipping a book is as easy as putting it in an envelope and attaching a shipping label. Postage via media mail is prepaid, so no trip to the post office is necessary and it costs me nothing. If you have a lot of books to give away, Bookins is an incredibly convenient and economical way to find them new homes.

Books I Have Received

The quality of my purchases have varied. The first book received, Fahrenheit 451, is pristine and appears as though it has never been read. Both Whit and Auntie Mame have broken spines but are otherwise in very good condition. Election suffers from bargain bin syndrome with icky sticker residue on the front and permanent marker marring the bar code on the back. Speaking of this last title, the mode of delivery was sort of perplexing because the envelope didn't have a Bookins-generated label on it. Rather, the shipper hand wrote my address and paid the postage out-of-pocket.

I buy lots of used books, so most imperfections don't phase me. I can handle dirt, tears, broken spines, dog ears, stickers, and marginalia. However, my nerves can't handle sketchy bindings or water damage. Loose pages means I'll eventually lose some of them, and I find nothing more annoying than trying to separate and turn ripply pages or reading wavy lines of text. Both Happiness and Drinking, Smoking & Screwing arrived with water damage, and I wish Bookins had a feedback mechanism as a way to stop incoming shipments from those who think its okay to list items of iffy quality.

Other Thoughts

$3.99 for a used book plus shipping is reasonable, but I'd buy from them a whole lot more if they based their rates on actual shipping plus a nominal fixed fee. For example, media mail on a mass market paperback is $1.59. That means Bookins nets $2.41 per such a transaction and possibly more if the USPS gives them a volume discount. Although their profit margin is smaller on heavier items, they are poised to rake in a tidy sum while users do most of the work by populating, maintaining, and shipping the site's inventory. Just for contrast, eBay earns only $0.41 on an item listed at a penny and selling for four dollars.

Points are also needed to receive books. Number of points varies from title to title, and I'm not sure how they come up with their calculations. For users, it means you have to give in order to get. But Bookins doesn't make money unless its users get. It is in their best interest, then, for everyone to have lots of points to spend, so I have received freebies for joining, Christmas, and filling out a survey. I'm sure bonus point opportunities will continue to pop up, so I see no value in ever buying extra points at the outrageous cost of $1.00 each.

Despite some of my reservations about ordering through Bookins, giving away a book couldn't be easier or freer. It's the best service I've found for finding new homes for my books, of which I have more than the average person's excess. This reason alone is enough for me to continue using their service.

During n+1's "The Blog Reflex" controversy, I wrote a post stating that I tried to obtain a copy of the magazine in order to find out what all the fuss was about. Although a few litbloggers were frothing at the mouth, I didn't want to comment on the article's content, since I rarely make judgements based on hearsay. I visited several bookstores to no avail, and was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from n+1's subscriptions director with an offer of a copy. Last weekend, I finally found the time to go through it and pay special care to "The Intellectual Situation" (the entire piece) and "The Blog Reflex" (a subheading).

As I waited for my copy, Literary Kicks offered this assessment:

Here's a surprise: the tirade against literary bloggers that all the fuss was about is a humor piece. And quite a good one, actually. It's called The Intellectual Situation, and it contains calibrated tirades against email culture and cell phone culture ("Whatever Minutes") as well as blogs. What didn't come across in the quoted discussions about this piece is that the anonymous authors are partially mocking themselves. It's a cranky humor act -- "see how retro we are". I've heard the same routine in bars and restaurants many times, actually, so maybe the piece isn't as original as all that, but there are a few very funny lines.

He's absolutely right. It is a humor piece that also partially offers a somewhat self-deprecating take on its unnamed author, who reminisces about a time before technology became the standard mode through which we communicate. According to the nostalgic narrator, "What's odd about so many modern technological improvements is that they are achievements of human liberation in their emergency uses, and they decivilize in their daily use" (p. 9). In longing for the old ways, the narrator mentions savages (pre-technology) and barbarians (post-technology) and wonders if we are nothing more than a bunch of barbarians sacking civilization, armed with cell phones and computers.

The article's main idea focuses on how today's methods of communication are decivilizing society. With technology, correspondence moves at the lightening speed of bits and bytes via email, cellphones, blogs, and computers. However, thought—or the history of thought, at least— moves slowly. Email, as a nearly instantaneous medium, requires some speed. Take too long to reply and the original message could go stale; be too rash with choosing your words and your tone could offend. (And, boy, do I know this. I am both a tardy responder and frequent offender.) Public cell phone use by many compels others to also use their cell phones in public lest it be thought that they have no one tell what they are doing right now. The computer, a work machine, is also a recreational machine. Although the activity n+1 uses in its example is porn (My guess is shock value, but they may have been channeling Avenue Q.), the point is that the computer has become a paradox. It is both the way to work and goof off from work.

And then there are the blogs. Drawing a parallel to the Speaker's Corner revolutionary on a soapbox, the narrator eventually concludes: "So much typing, so little communication...It's incredible" (p. 7). Before reading the article, I assumed that it spent all of its effort disparaging litblogs because of the hyperbolic reaction by some litbloggers. On the contrary, the charge is a generalization against the millions upon millions of blogs out there. Lit- and news blogs are simply used as examples of the failure of the medium, which is also a paradox. News blogs sprung up as an alternative to mainstream media, but capital brought them into the very same mainstream they intended to criticize. Blogs were supposed to be the voice of the people, but the people are increasingly being silenced by dollars.

According the the article, the litblog is both an "accident waiting to happen to bloggers" and "the avant-garde of 21st-century publicity" (p. 6). For the former phrase, litblogs should contribute to serious criticism of literature but do not do this often enough because of the conversational tone of the medium. As for the latter, they should be an alternative to mainstream reviews but they sacrifice their independent voices for free books and clicks. If I think about ALL the blogs I have read mentioning literature (litblog, news blog, personal blog, whatever) and generalize, I can't disagree with either of these statements. Sturgeon's Law most certainly applies to blogging, literary or otherwise.

Over at The Reading Experience, Dan Green has written a thoughtful response to the article in terms of how its allegations applies to his site and those belonging to the uber-litbloggers. The Literary Saloon, in response to a statement by n+1's Keith Gessen, objects to being "tarred by one big brush" and goes on record to assert that they "rarely call people assholes." Both "The Blog Reflex" and Gessen's statements are generalities. But both counterpoints respond with inward specifics. Perhaps there is some merit to the article's idea that "lit-bloggers [have] become a self-sustaining community, minutemen ready to rise up in defense of their niches" (p. 7), but, frankly, I don't see how this is a bad thing.

At the conclusion of "The Blog Reflex" lies another paradox. Our nostalgic n+1 narrator bases some assumptions on the idea that no one reads litblogs.

A bottomless labor market exists in which the free activity of the mind gets bartered away for something even less nourishing than a bowl of porridge. And you can't dine off your inflated self-respect and popularity—not unless you get enough hits to sell advertising (p. 7).

So, let me get this straight. Litbloggers have sold their souls for a pittance? And we do this for self-respect and popularity because most of us do not get many hits? If we were to get enough hits to sell advertising, would we turn out like the news bloggers? And at that point, would we no longer be the voice of the independent critic but part of the mainstream capitalist machine? Oh, wait, aren't we already not independent because we've been bought for the price of a book (or in the case of this post, a free literary magazine)?

Rather than spin into a frenzy over the above, I'm going to go the blog route and counter a generalization with some navel-gazing. Because I do sell advertising, I know my own traffic very well. What's n+1's circulation? 5,000? 10,000? 20,000 readers each year? Such numbers, compared to the reach of BookBlog and many others, are the pittance, dear blogging friends. As a result, I see no need to get all worked up over a bit of criticism from down below.

Back in October, I wrote a post about book swapping that took swipes at four services. It included Bookins, which I dismissed after finding BAFAB (Buy a Friend a Book) on a links page. BAFAB is a made-up holiday, consisting of four weeks a year, that asks people to buy books for friends for no reason other than as a thoughtful gift. I'm not a supporter, mostly because I think friends should buy/loan friends books all the time. Designating special week for it, and four a year no less, is a bit much.

Debra Hamel, BAFAB's creator, recently saw that old post and took exception to it. Now months later, I realize what I wrote was kind of harsh, but I'm not sure I agree with Debra's assessment that "marydell of bookblog.net went into a strange rant against, well, me." First off, it wasn't about Debra Hamel, the person, since I know little about her. I simply am not a fan of her reviews or BAFAB. And, I'm pretty sure I did not rant. Although choice words were used, anyone who's ever had some real life contact with me has likely seen me really lose it and really start ranting. It isn't pretty...or a flattering portrait.

I never insinuated that BAFAB was a "cash cow" because I have no issue with anyone attempting to earn money from a website. I certainly do it here since the bandwidth bill is more than I care to pay out of pocket. Also being an Amazon Associate and knowing their schedule (which has since changed), the timing of BAFAB just seemed suspicious to me at the time. But, hey, it's BAFAB Week right now, so go buy a book and do it through BAFAB's recommendations or enter a contest.

In any case, I have no objections to Debra's defense of herself and "holiday" by writing a counter-post. After reading through the comments on her site, I noted that a BAFAB fan had wanted to respond directly to me. I generally close comments to avoid spam, but I have reopened this one and invite anyone to go ahead and praise BAFAB over there. As visitors google "book swapping" and land on the page, they'll also get to see counter-comments. I'm all for debate and exposure to varying points of view.

Although I have no problem with Debra's displeasure with me, I am kind of bothered that she felt compelled to post her response in three places: the BAFAB site, her personal site, and MetaxuCafe. For my part, I said what I said here and only here. BookBlog wasn't even a member of MetaxuCafe back in October, so my harsh words didn't reach beyond the audience of my own site. Dragging me through the mud in front of the entire litblogging community seems, like BAFAB, a bit much. Regardless, I have apologized to Debra since my intent was never to hurt her feelings and I am sincerely sorry if she took it that way.

Since October, some of my original assumptions have changed. BAFAB is still not for me, but I better see the consequences of sharing unpositive thoughts without better-tempered language. I'm also now a member of Bookins. Despite my criticism, Eddie still found it to be worthwhile enough to check out, and he made me join so he could get referral points. So far, I have traded about a dozen books through them. I have some additional thoughts based on the experience, both pro and con, which I'll share at a future time.

Today, we are pleased to announce the first ever Litty Awards, the first annual award for litbloggers; bloggers that have worked hard to keep you informed of the latest book news, provide their opinions and insights, and feed your brain with a regular intellectual banquet.

Thank you, Book Chronicle, for shortlisting BookBlog for a Litty Award. Since the list names many blogs I admire and know are of much better quality than our site, I don't hold much hope of winning any of the categories. However, I do appreciate the recognition and am sincerely humbled by being included in such fine company.

Again, thank you!

Last week on Brian's blog, I left a tongue-in-cheek comment suggesting that mano-a-mano writing combat would be a fun sport to watch. You know how sometimes once you clue into something, you start seeing it everywhere? I had no idea that after making the joke, I'd be paying attention to all of the recent literary-esque combat.

Tournament of Books

Like many folks, I have been following The Morning News' Tournament of Books, which pits title against title in March Madness-style brackets. My favorite round so far has been Colin Meloy's take on The Lay of the Land v. English, August. Channeling Mel Gibson from before we all found out he was a drunken, Jesus-loving, Jew-hating womanizer, the Thunderdome references made me laugh aloud. "Two books enter! One book leaves!" Killer.

Thinking Blogger Awards

Poor Maxine. She tried being nice by naming and complimenting a few of her favorite sites. Of course, someone always swoops in to ruin the fun. The bloggers awarding the "award" had good intentions. At the same time, John Baker surely had good intentions for exposing the nefarious "truth." If you perpetuate the meme, you are naive. If you scorn the meme, you are a killjoy. It's become a vicious circle.

Kid Lit Cliques

Chasing Ray has reported on a scuffle in the kid lit blogosphere over popularity and cliques. It didn't surprise me to find out that kid litbloggers also fight amongst themselves, since, well, they're bloggers. I was more amazed to see the Technorati authority groupings as defined by Kineda's popularity tracker widget. It establishes me as a B-List Blogger, which goes to show how meaningless popularity is since most of my inbound links are for the Gender Genie. The three of you reading this surely know that few care about what I have to say.

n+1 and the Litblogger Knee-Jerk Reflex

In response to my recent post about the dustup, n+1 has offered, based on my inability to find it in various sub-par bookstores, to send me a copy of the controversial issue. I'm looking forward to receiving it so I can draw my own conclusions, since I am not one to pass judgement based on hearsay.

Ed Champion, on the other hand, chose to leave a characteristically antagonistic comment. Sadly, he has no understanding of irony or author's intent and I have been forced to take him to school. Although the exchange boils down to a pair of litgeeks arguing over literary device [Snore!], it does make me feel kind of like Gulliver pitched in battle against a Lilliputian [Just so I don't confuse Ed more, this statement is laden with both irony and satire.]. I genuinely like Ed's blog, so I hope he learns some new things and becomes a better reader and writer from it all.

I'd have to be living under a proverbial rock to miss the n+1/litblogger controversy. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is an embarrassment to the entire litblogging community.

After Garth Risk Hallberg's response to n+1's article hit The Millions, I tried to acquire a copy in order to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, the stretch of highway I happened to be on only allowed access to a Barnes & Noble and Borders, the two worst places to find literary magazines not called The Paris Review or Glimmer Train.

At B&N, I reluctantly slinked over to the information desk when I couldn't find n+1 in the magazine racks. I still hold a small grudge against this particular store because of the time an employee sniggered at my book choices. Information called over the magazine manager, and he looked at me like I had two heads when I asked for n+1. If I can help it, I will never go to this store again.

I didn't even bother asking for help at Borders because their magazine selection was thin overall, no one was at the information desk, and no employees were walking around. In a retail store, I should not have to hunt down an employee. Their livelihood depends on customers, so they ought to be eager to help everyone inside spend money.

As a result, I haven't read "The Blog Reflex" and cannot comment on it. However, I have read The New York Inquirer's interview with Keith Gessen (here). And all the litblogger posts and comments at The Millions (here, here, and here), The Elegant Variation (here), and Return of the Reluctant (here, here, here, and here). And the group discussions at Long Sunday (here) and The Valve (here and here).

The ones who come out looking bad, due to unnecessary roughness, are the litbloggers. To make matters worse, this small, petty argument is being mislabeled as "n+1 vs. litbloggers" in many places. A few rash complainers do not comprise the whole of a community even if they are often cited as the representative sample. Popularity also does not necessarily signify quality. Though, as a fellow litblogger, I am embarrassed for all of us.

Brian of Dispatches from an MFA Seeking Writer has graciously stepped up to the plate and offered to moderate June for us. We will be reading Happiness by Will Ferguson, a satire on the world of self-help publishing, and the discussion will begin on June 25, 2007. Pick up your copy now.

Brian's site, by the way, hosts a fabulous weekly game called Haiku Saturday. I only just discovered it and have already experienced multiple haikus. Why not visit Brian's house and add another explosive gem of wisdom to yesterday's game? You know you want to.

So, slots are open for May and July. I will moderate one of them, but I'm holding off on picking a month. I'm here anyway, so either works for me. If you're interested in bringing a favorite work of fiction to the world's attention, you'd have your pick. Don't be shy. No one here bites unless provoked.

Anybody want to pay me to read and write an 800-word evaluation of an unpublished manuscript? The Publishing Contrarian says a professional reviewer will do it for $300, but I can be easily bought for $200 (negotiable). Despite being cheap-to-hire, I am always brutally honest. When I read crap, I say it's crap.

Okay, so maybe I didn't throw away my post about how much hardcovers suck. In attempting to finish it, which I still haven't managed, I did a little poking around and discovered that I'm not the only one recently complaining about prices:

Condalmo: "A recent post here once again highlighted my preference for the paperback over the hardcover, and lamented that publishers always release the unwieldy, overpriced hardcover first, and then make us wait for the paperback. If only a publisher would step up to the plate and launch a simultaneous release system, thought I."

Literary Kicks: "For now, let me just state an obvious fact as simply as I can: $28 for a book is absolutely ridiculous. We live in an age where hit singles cost $.99 and new albums cost $9.99. Publishers wish that literary authors could be as popular as top bands, but they price their best talents out of that market."

The Dream You Dare to Dream: "We topped off the evening by heading to the bookstore to catch up on our magazine reading. I also looked at "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, but it was too expensive. Why are books so expensive anyway? I mean, I get the whole supply/demand analysis, but are books really that popular that they can charge like $20 for a hardcover?"

This morning, I received the copy of Demon Theory I won from The Litblog Co-Op. Thank you, MacAdam/Cage for such quick shipping!

According to the dust jacket:

On Halloween night, following an unnerving phone call from his diabetic mother, Hale and six of his med-school classmates return to the house where his sister disappeared years ago. While there is no sign of his mother, something is waiting for them there, and has been waiting for a long time. Written as a literary film treatment littered with footnotes and experimental nuance, Demon Theory is even parts camp and terror, combining glib dialogue, fascinating pop culture references and an intricate subtext as it pursues the events of a haunting movie trilogy that is all too real.

It sounds a lot like Scary Movie meets House of Leaves.

In flipping quickly through the book, I couldn't not notice the footnotes (and footnotes to the footnotes) appearing on nearly every page. I absolutely loved House of Leaves, which uses footnotes and appendices as integral literary devices guiding the reader through its labyrinthine eponymous character. It wouldn't have been the same book without them. Over at the LBC, much of their Demon Theory discussion focused on the footnote issue, and the consensus was that they distracted rather than moved the story forward. I'm looking forward to reading it and drawing my own conclusions.

But (You knew there was a "but" coming, right?) seeing Demon Theory's page layout reminded me of a semi-unpleasant cereal I recently tasted. Last time I went grocery shopping, I bought a box of Kashi Go Lean because I had a coupon and I'm one of those intestinally-challenged people who needs a lot of fiber. Although I'm no stranger to eating sawdust, I like my sawdust to be appealing. The front of the box describes Go Lean Cereal as "crunchy fiber twigs, soy protein grahams and honey puffs." Despite wondering why Kashi couldn't come up with a more appetizing word than "twigs," I figured the "honey puffs" would be okay. They're not. They look deceptively like Kellogg's Honey Smacks, but taste every bit as twiggy as the "twigs."

On the surface, Demon Theory looks kind of like House of Leaves. I hope there's some honey in it and not a whole bunch of twigs.

There's a literary quiz, in multiple parts, over at Conversational Reading today. The only answer I knew right away was number seven from Famous First Lines:

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.

And, honestly, I only know the quote because we covered it here. The rest of the quiz is a complete mystery, since I am not well-read. Rather than mourn my ignorance, I choose to believe I'm medium well-read. That is, warm and slightly pink in the middle.

isn't a bad thing.

The Litblog Co-Op has informed me that my entry merited a free copy of Demon Theory. Although fear of a Sesame Street cartoon might seem silly for a 37-year-old, I can still see those footed flowers in my head. Over dinner the other night, I read the story to Eddie and tried to explain how I had to leave the room whenever the scary Dandelions were on. His reaction was a blank stare. Sigh. There is a bright side, though. A neighbor has remarked, more than once, about the lack of weeds in my lawn. Thanks to the LBC, Stephen Graham Jones, and MacAdam/Cage.

Congratulations also to Jamie of AuthorStore and How Not to Write for winning in the hair metal band category. Woot!

During the last several days, I've been obsessively working on a non-table, all-CSS redesign of BookBlog. The new home page should be ready either today or tomorrow, with the rest of the site following in dribs and drabs. As a result, I find myself unable to concentrate on anything longer than an html tag (Seriously, I've been dreaming about them.) and can't compose my thoughts enough to write a substantive entry.

In the meantime, here are my results to a little reading quiz:

Hmm. I wonder which question got me a result in the "Fad Reader" category.

(via AuthorStore)

Although I should be in bed right now, I have just stumbled across another book contest at Magnificent Octopus. The winner will receive a like-new review copy of Bang Crunch signed by the author, Neil Smith. I have already submitted my entry and have my fingers crossed.

The Litblog Co-Op is currently discussing Stephen Graham Jones's Demon Theory and sponsoring contests to win free copies of his book:

Contest One: What's "your best/worst/strangest experience at a hair metal band concert?"

Contest Two: "What scene from a film, generally regarded as a horror film, are you most embarrassed to admit scared the excrement out of you?"

I'd enter, since I like free books, but I've never been to a hair metal concert. Plus, my most terrifying, excrement-depleting experience wasn't caused by a horror film. It happened when I was very young while watching an episode of Sesame Street. To this day, the scars still haven't healed. But, you could be a winner. I'm looking forward to reading the entries.

Merry belated Christmas, everyone!

Yesterday's gathering went off without a hitch and so far no one has called to complain that my cooking resulted in food poisoning. Yay! After cleaning like mad since last night's guests departed, I'm now awaiting the arrival of more relatives. I will probably spend most of the day tomorrow recovering from holiday—that is, food and family—overload.

Very quickly, I wanted to pop in to mention that I won second place in AuthorStore's 2006 Best Little Christmas Story Contest. Yippee!

Click here to read my entry, "A Sudden Hope." It's fairly tragic, but there's no need to be concerned. Right after e-mailing the link to my sister, she phoned to make sure I wasn't depressed. I'm not. Rather, I'm tickled pink.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to Jamie of AuthorStore for running the contest.

The 2006 Best Little Christmas Story Contest

AuthorStore is hosting this event and will award $250 in prizes to the winners. I've been meaning to mention it sooner since entries are due by midnight EST on December 15th, but, well, you know. The story needs to only be 250 words, so there's still time for you to write an entry.

Although I'm not much of a writer, I have composed a Christmas tragedy which needs to be edited—a lot—in order to make it a super short story. I never made it beyond seven words for a 50,000-word NaNoWriMo novel. However, I had no problem going far, far beyond 250ish words for this contest. Mary, Mary, quite contrary, indeed.

Elizabeth Baines on Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Maxine of Petrona linked to this article from Norman Geras's site. Says Maxine, "Not only is it insightful about Wuthering Heights as a novel, but it contrasts the experience of reading it when young with reading it when older." She also makes a connection to our recent discussion of the novel and my blathering, at length, on how my perceptions of its characters have changed through the years. An interesting find.

Failed Intellectuals Society

Founding members Bryan Appleyard (a.k.a. Supreme Failure) and Frank Wilson (a.k.a. Vice Failure) make me chuckle. Alas, I am sure I wouldn't qualify. You probably have to have been considered an intellectual at some point before being able to fail at it. And we all know my intelligence has been under some scrutiny of late.

Thank goodness the holiday is over. I emerged from this one unscathed (last year's holiday season was rife with drama), so I'm adding it to the good day column.

Our Wuthering Heights discussion is ongoing and comments will remain open as long as the posts remain here on the homepage. Later today, I will have some thoughts to add to the latest comments (thanks, Maxine!) and also encourage anyone stopping by to chime in. I'd do it now, but I've already spent enough time this today surfing through my regular Internet stops. A sadly neglected woodpile and gorgeously warm day are both begging me to be outside.

During the last few days, I received several e-mails asking if we are accepting members. I must point out that everyone is welcome to participate in a book discussion. No membership is required to leave a comment.

After four days spent with family, having company, and going visiting, I was surprised to return to the computer and encounter a lot of litblog hooha over this article from The Observer: "Deliver us from these latter-day Pooters." Given the recent unpleasantness, I find this article to be quite interesting for a few reasons:

• It dismisses litbloggers and amateur reviewers as hacks but includes a link to The Guardian's book blog. I read this as: litblogs suck...except ours.
• Ethics is mentioned in reference to a John Sutherland piece on Amazon reviews. In it, he basically says that amateur reviewers prostitute themselves for freebies and are not held accountable to standards for criticism. Meanwhile, Kimbofo of Reading Matters tried to impart an ethics lesson to both sides (publishers and litbloggers) and got crapped on all over the place for it. Between criticism from the mainstream media and criticism from within the ranks, many litbloggers have been beside themselves trying to defend their integrity. It's more evidence of dishing it out but not being able to take it.
• The article's author mentions being personally attacked by bloggers for criticizing them in the past. "I found my name on a bloggers' website called, charmingly, 'shit sandwich'. I was the focus of a lot of anger and frustration; bloggers didn't like my argument at all, seeing it as a way of getting at them and their amateur criticism." Amazingly, I have already come across posts personally attacking her on three different blogs. Sigh. Resorting to name-calling because the mainstream media is not taking you seriously is not the way to get the mainstream media to take you seriously.

And what the heck is a Pooter? My only knowledge of this word comes from a cartoon called Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and billboards promoting the series. Cheese, a character on the show, is known for using "I pooted" as a euphemism for "I farted." Is The Observer calling litbloggers Latter-Day Farters?

I don't know what's gotten into me recently. Although normally a blog lurker, I actually left comments in a few places and tried to participate in discussions. Rather than add to intellectual discourse, I managed to get myself insulted and sucked into trading barbs. I also made the mistake of reviewing another site based on a solicitation via e-mail, and the site owner promptly told me what he thought of me and my post.

Books, Inq.

It started regarding a New York Inquirer piece: "A Dearth of American Women Novelists?" Frank Wilson of Books, Inq., offered the question to his readers, so I suggested Margaret Mitchell, Amy Tan (with a qualifier: "I could be biased since I also have a difficult relationship with my Asian mother"), and a few others. Although I don't think the slam was directed at me personally, Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica later remarked, "Anyone who would mention Amy Tan as a great writer simply cannot be taken seriously as an intellect," and, "Margaret Mitchell? She's dumbed doen Brontes? [sic]" (I think the first typo is meant to be "down.") Initially, I felt compelled to defend my picks but let it go since the discussion had completely derailed by that time anyway.

Despite turning into a polemic, the evolution of the discussion thread itself is an interesting study in gender. It began with female commenters, turned into a male vs. female writers argument, male commenters joined in, and eventually the men drowned out most of the women. It even spilled onto other blogs, with Jessica Schneider, who believes that there are more great male writers, justifiably feeling slighted by condescending remarks. Maxine of Petrona tried being the voice of reason by reminding everyone of the original question and eventually brought the topic to her site for a more civil discourse. I left a comment there and was chided, in jest, for suggesting Carol Shields was more Canadian than American.

MetaxuCafé

Read for yourself the entire exchange regarding an entry on disclosure of free review copies, which was originally posted at Kimbofo's Reading Matters. From what I can tell, I made three mistakes:

1. I dissed Pynchon and the litbloggers who received ARCs of his latest book.
2. I called Ed Champion's opinion "preeminent."
3. I kept going back for more.

It's a shame since I feel no personal animosity toward Ed. I like his blog and think he's pretty funny most of the time. And maybe he was trying to be funny in disagreeing with Kim's post by using his own special way of turning a phrase. However, I didn't particularly care for being called a "slattern" and felt egged on when he persisted with "more nonsense from a numbskull" right before a flawed defense of his choice of words. In the end, my "limp adder snake of a brain" doesn't understand why I'm accused of preferring "acrimony to amicability," especially since he flung the first insult.

Similepedia

The Like or As Man e-mailed me (and many others, I'm sure) about looking at Similepedia, which I did, and I even contributed a few similes of my own. He didn't like what I had to say and quickly sent another e-mail:

are you always that nasty with sites trying to get off the ground, or were you just having a bad day. the publicity is still appreciated on the ground that any publicity is good publicity ... but your post was, well, a little small-minded.

The flawed data I mentioned is a problem inherent to all wikis, but he thinks I need to do some research because I don't know when something is not a simile.

Sigh.

After receiving an e-mail from Steve, the creator of Similepedia, a wiki repository for similes from literature, I mentally filed it under Internet time wasters. Being one who loves to waste time on the Internet, I later went back and checked out the site.

Not every sentence containing "like" or "as" is a simile, but Similepedia or some of its users, at least, seem to not know this. For example, here are a few entries from William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

Simile: "They put him on the train, laughing, down the long car laughing, the heads turning like the heads of owls when he passed."

Not a Simile: "He looked like he was laying there in the water on his face, rocking up and down a little, looking at something on the bottom."

Simile: "He has put on a clean shirt; his hair, wet, is combed smooth down on his brow, smooth and black as if he had painted it onto his head."

Not a Simile: "… his teeth, set in pale gums, are parted a little as if he had been laughing quietly."

There's a way to rate similes by assigning stars, but that feature makes little sense in such a forum. Something could be a simile and get five stars while something else could not be a simile and get no stars. Or, subjectively, many might think Hemingway's similes as being superior than, say, those by James Patterson. Better than stars would be a discussion section, like on Wikiquote, so real word geeks could go at it, as prizefighters squaring off in a literary ring. Wiki discussions are often much more entertaining and attention-grabbing than the articles themselves.

In any case, I added a few quotes from my current read, Novel Without a Name by Duong Thu Huong, which is rich in both simile and metaphor.

I listened all night to the wind howl through the Gorge of Lost Souls. Endless moans punctuated by sobs. From time to time it whinnied like a mare in heat, whistling through the broken shafts of the bamboo roof above me, sweeping through the countryside in a macabre symphony of sound.

Although I may be overextending myself literarily, I joined another bookclub blog: Reading... The Red and the Black. Formerly: Reading... War and Peace. Formerly: Reading... Middlemarch. This club, run by Isabella of Magnificent Octopus, focuses on the classics and discussion moves at an eased pace. A few chapters are covered each week to give members the chance to break apart a dense book into smaller chunks.

When I requested membership, I had an e-mail exchange with Isabella who asked if The Red and the Black might be taken on by BookBlog since we also cover classics: Wuthering Heights this month and Doctor Zhivago in December. At first, I thought Stendhal's tR&tB wouldn't go over well here since what I remember from reading it in college was political satire and the French Restoration. Now that I'm into the book, I've changed my mind. There is a lot more to the story, including a man's rise from humble beginnings, romance, and crime drama.

I originally read tR&tB in college in French as an assignment for a French literature class. Since I remember nothing of the story other than its politics and criticism of French society after Waterloo (probably why it was assigned), it's a good example of how organized education can sometimes ruin great books for a student. I'm sure I hated every minute of it the first time and likely gave up and switched to Cliffs Notes before reaching the end. At this point in life, when I also can remember nearly nothing of college or even studying French, I'm glad to have the opportunity to read it again.

As an aside, I spent the end of summer thinking about enrolling in a French conversation class after receiving a catalog from my local adult learning center. I thought it might be fun to meet some new people and get the chance to speak French again. After some consideration, I scrapped the idea when I realized how easy the classes would be. I have lost a lot of the language through the years, but it wouldn't be very exciting to watch the other students learn how to say things like, "Salut, mes amis. Je m'appelle Marie. J'habite chez moi." Trop ennuyeux, ça c'est vraiment.

Reading... The Red and the Black provides several links to e-texts, including the French version. I loved the sound of reading it aloud, but the wonky display of diacritics and my lost vocabulary made it too hard to understand. I switched to the English e-text (you know, since POD is the future of books), but I wasn't about to print out more than 300 pages and reading via the computer—scrolling and eye strain—was too much to bear. I finally had to go out and get an old-fashioned paper copy.

In any case, if you've read tR&tB or are interested in reading it, check out Reading... The Red and the Black.

Anyone who sends me e-mail knows I'm terrible at reading and responding to it. Despite spam filters, my inbox gets about 1,000 new messages each day, consisting of a hodgepodge of junk, bookish press releases, and personal mail. I flip through it quickly to look for mail I'm expecting, so it usually takes something catchy to get me to read anything unsolicited.

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from Andrei of bookblog.ro asking if bookblog.net would be interested in a link exchange. Exchanges don't generally happen on this BookBlog, mainly because nearly all linking goes though posts to the homepage. This way, most links come with a thoughtful explanation and I personally prefer to only recommend things I've thoroughly checked out. However, Andrei's e-mail caught my eye because he described bookblog.ro as "the most important blog dealing with book reviews in Romania (that's Eastern Europe :) )."

Although I already know where Romania is located, the smiley-faced geography lesson made me chuckle. His e-mail was being sent to an American, and it's not unreasonable for folks outside the U.S. to think that most Americans are geographically-challenged since, frankly, a lot of us are. Just last night I watched the Kentucky coal miner and wife get eliminated from The Amazing Race and say, "I need to get out and take my kids to see the world. I don't want my kids to be like me; I want 'em to experience life, because I never experienced life." It's a shame how so many of us don't have the luxury or opportunity to see what lies beyond our borders.

Map skills aside, Andrei also pointed me to his site's review of La răscruce de vânturi, the Romanian translation of Wuthering Heights. I couldn't read it, but I think the reviewer liked the novel since it received 4 out of 5 stars. If you happen to speak Romanian, though, check out bookblog.ro for more reviews and book information.

Update: I feel the international love. Thank you, also, Andrei, and I hope you reach your goal of conquering Google. Well, all except for the number one search spot for "bookblog," of course. ;)

Everybody loves lists.

In the comments of this post, Eddie, our moderator for Doctor Zhivago in December, mentioned another one. Here's a link to The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written from the book of the same name by Martin Seymour-Smith. Of course, all the titles making the list are based on the author's opinion (like 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die), but it's a good resource nonetheless if you're looking for something to read.

I'm not embarrassed to admit that I've read very few from this list since it's heavy on the non-fiction. For me, many of the titles or portions thereof were assigned in high school and college classes. As for those I've read cover-to-cover, there are only five:

• The Prince by Machiavelli
• Don Quixote, Part I by Cervantes
• Candide by Voltaire
• The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels
• 1984 by Orwell

Although I do go through a non-fiction phase every now and then, I read more for entertainment than information or education. It's a way to escape from reality since my own imagination is limited due to an overabundance of pragmatism, so there's nothing better than a good yarn to suck me into another world.

Overcast, rainy, and cold. It's been a dreary day, but not a bad one. Who can complain about snuggling under a blanket on the couch with a pot of tea and a good book? I started my reread of Wuthering Heights today in preparation for November's discussion. No worries, Ana. I'm also in for The Dew Breaker as I finished it a while back.

On a lazy day, here's a lazy link. Everyone's blogging about the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die thanks to Bookslut. I might as well admit to my paltry count of 81. As I went through the list I worried that I might not break 25, but, thanks to having read everything written by Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Brontë sisters, my count swelled as I hit the 1800s section. I wonder if I get bonus points for reading some of the foreign language titles in the actual foreign language since I have 7 years of French classes and study abroad in Grenoble under my belt.

How many books on the list have you read?

As you can imagine, I have a lot of books. I'm not a collector and rarely read a title twice, so I keep finished ones in a pile and offer them up to whoever happens to visit. The pile has been getting bigger and I thought it might be a good idea to join a book swapping site. After checking a few of them out, though, I changed my mind.

PaperBackSwap

"Eventually we will ask our members to pay annual club dues so that we can operate the club (probably between $10-$20 per member per year). But for now we are waiving the annual club dues so that you can become a member of the club for free!" Yeah, suck me in until I'm committed then make me pay for my membership. They must get their data from Amazon (although I couldn't find any direct links), so there has to be another way for them to make money.

TitleTrader

There's a lot of bitching and moaning in their forums about points and product condition and non-receipt and disputes and ratings and and and... It also seems like some members post in the forums just to get people to look at their inventory lists. They practically beg each other to take their unwanted stuff away.

Bookins

$3.99 per book you receive and they provide mailing labels, including postage, for the books you send. I was almost tempted to try it when I made the mistake of looking at the "Our Favorite Sites" page. BAFAB is the first link on their alphabetical list, an idea I find to be the most stupid book meme ever. First of all, you don't need a made-up week to buy a friend a book. Its creator writes terrible reviews fawning over terrible books. And, it's no coincidence that BAFAB weeks happen to coincide with the start of each Amazon Associates fiscal quarter. I know Bookins has nothing to do with it, but I had to close the window anyway.

BookMooch

You have got to be kidding me. It gets worse. And he plays the lute, too.

spam is really annoying!
i can't believe the amount of spam we get on here!

anyway,
thought i'd stop by to see how everyone is doing.

has anyone read Daniel Handler's Adverbs: A Novel yet?

i thought i'd share these book places with you all too:

readreverb
what should i read next?
boldtype

see you all soon!

During last month's discussion of The Ghost Writer, we couldn't help but focus on the stories within the story because they play such a large role in the progression of the overall plot. "Seraphina" and "The Revenant" are written by Viola Hatherley, an author who didn't exist until John Harwood invented her. Other past BookBlog selections also contain stories within the story. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino [May 2004] refers to novels that never were. And Cervantes' Don Quixote [November/December 2002] would have stayed home if it were not for tales of knights errant and their noble adventures.

Keeping track of virtual books requires a virtual library:

The Invisible Library - The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.

You won't get to read any of the books cataloged in The Invisible Library, but it's a fun web site nonetheless. For book geeks everywhere.

Some people went to midnight Harry Potter release parties because they wanted to see what the hype was about. Some people went because they couldn't wait to start reading the next story.

And some people dressed up and wanted to open the box and have the first book, and when they were passed over for a kid, they flipped out. Via Bookslut comes a pretty interesting Livejournal post. An excerpt:

I made an effort. I spent money making an effort. I showed up early. I will remember and treasure this event for ever and eternity. And I'm passed over for an ugly little brat with a sparkly tie. Woo fucking woo.

I didn't stab her in the eye with my wand. I WANTED to. I talked about doing so VERY FUCKING LOUDLY. I was going to eviscerate her mother with the cover of my brand-new copy.

Um, yeah.

When I left the "Midnight Magic" release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I noticed a lot of customers walking out with empty shipping boxes. I wondered, "Why would anyone want an empty box?"

Now I know:

Buy your very own original Harry Potter garbage on eBay!

Update: This is probably the most creative pitch I've ever seen on eBay, even if it is for an empty box that should be in a landfill by now. What the heck are "burninating mugwart monsterosities?"

Yesterday, I had a very nice conversation with the very nice manager of online marketing at abebooks.com. The phone call came about because he sent me an e-mail about doing some promoting here on BookBlog, and I didn�t delete it like I normally do when I get requests for advertising. See, the difference was that he said nice things about BookBlog rather than the usual pitch to sell or review crappy books for a crappy publisher. (In a former life, I worked for a crappy publisher for eight years. I know crappy books.) I think the phrase that made me keep reading his e-mail was �personal fan of your blog.� You have to pet the pony before you ride it.

Intrigued, I took a look at abebooks.com and instantly liked it. It�s sort of like the Amazon used book marketplace except that the sellers are real used bookstores and not joe schmoes trying to clear out some shelf space in order to make room for the next Harry Potter book. And I love used books. I really do. When I go on a pilgrimage, my Mecca is Strand Book Store, the most fabulous shop ever for real book lovers. Now that most of the independent bookstores have been squashed by latte-pushing super retailers, the used bookstore is the only place to go for that great musty book smell. Online shopping for used books isn�t quite the same as doing it in person since you can�t run your hands over all of the old bindings, but it isn�t half bad because you can easily find exactly what you want.

For example, let�s say you�re interested in buying this month�s selection, The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. By doing a quick search on abebooks.com, you can find:

• a used or new copy,
• a first edition, or
• a copy signed by the author.

Wasn�t that easy? A trip to the used bookstore usually involves climbing over mountains of old books, scaling 20-foot shelving units being held together by one rusty screw, and dealing with employees who can�t find anything since they�re all classics graduate students only working there for the discount. I enjoy an adventure when I�m browsing, but I�d rather get what I want and get out when I�m looking for something specific.

And I put my money where my mouth is. My copy of Noir from the BookBlog library (currently housed in a pile next to my bedroom door) has gone missing. It�s out of print, and I have already placed an order for a gently-loved replacement from abebooks.com.

So, don�t be surprised if you find a bunch of abebooks.com stuff popping up around here. I wouldn�t suggest the site if I didn�t think it was good for books.

me again!

i got a link to a list of words at YourDictionary.com from My Yahoo!
i'm proud to say that i am guilty of about 5 words, the most!

click here to see the list!

p.s. mary, did i do a good job this time? ;)

While browsing Bookslut, I came across a link to Book Errata, a web site dedicated to righting the wrongs of bad copyediting. In the five minutes I spent on the site, though, I noticed a couple of typos of their own.

Could I have a comma, please?

Too many words, not enough time to copyedit.

The errors may be corrected since I sent them an e-mail, but, oh, the irony.

Speaking of typos, I found one on page 127 of my copy of Norwegian Wood: "'I couldn't tell the different between his strong points and his flaws, they were all the same to me.'"

Whether or not we believed in this war or not is irrelevant. Our troops must be supported, especially those who have no one who can support them.

If you are interested in supporting soldiers fighting the war, you can donate books, or dvd's, anything to entertain them.

Go to books for soldiers

According to Mig, "NaNoWriMo is for sissies." Sign up for The Metamorphosism Challenge and write not one, but two novels next month. Make a note, though, that writing under hardship conditions is required, but drinking heavily will probably help.

Ever wonder who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947? Robert Penn Warren for All the King�s Men.

What about the first Newbery Medal winner? The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon.

Or even the last five NBCC winners? Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, Being Dead by Jim Crace, Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro, and The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.

These questions and more are all easily answered in just one place: Lists of Bests. Not only is this site a compendium of all the great books, it�s an excellent resource for lists on movies and music.

My TBR pile is already nearly five feet tall. I have a feeling it�s going to keep growing.

So, you�re a blogger and you�re interested in joining a book club. Maybe BookBlog�s traditional format and general nonfiction selections aren�t for you. One of these might interest you:

Books and Bloggers: Claims to be "the first book club solely dedicated to bloggers." Ahem. Each month, the moderator posts a list of up to five books. The members then read the books, e-mail their thoughts to the moderator, and the e-mails are posted.

Page Turners: A lot like BookBlog, but without the structure. (Yes, I realize I am a control freak). Each member chooses a book in turn and discussions happen whenever some of the members finish reading.

Women-At-Home Book Blog: I couldn�t find a FAQ or About page, but, from what I can tell, the moderator gives the members (all women, if you weren�t able to figure it out) a focus for a certain number of chapters. They then read and discuss simultaneously.

Zuly�s Reading Room: A "how many books can we read this summer" book club. Members read whatever they want then post their thoughts to the club�s page using TrackBack. Discussions can happen on either the reader�s site or the message board. Members and book counts are listed on a sidebar.

Gwen brought The Barbecue! Bible Website to my attention because she did some work for them in setting up Moveable Type to run it.. Although I shy away from nonfiction, will probably never read The Barbecue! Bible, and am mostly interested in blogs of fiction, this author site totally cracked me up because of its unashamed enthusiasm for barbecuing. Seriously, you really have to love something to jam an exclamation point where it isn�t wanted or needed in the middle of your book title.

The thing I like best about the site is that it doesn�t take itself seriously even though grilling meat is serious business, which I know nothing about since I am an apartment-dweller. I also finally learned the difference between cooking with charcoal ("Charcoal gives you the primal thrill of lighting and playing with fire.") and gas ("Gas grills deprive you of the primal thrill of lighting and playing with fire."). Although I am currently boycotting cooking, I did browse through the recipes and managed to make myself hungry.

If I�m not mistaken, several of our members grill. Why don�t you pay the Gladiator of Grilling a visit and then go make me a steak?

We blog; so do they.

Cory Doctorow - Boing Boing: More famous for being an author on Boing Boing than an author of novels, but he did recently publish Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which was plugged by Jeff Bezos on NPR. Not surprisingly, Doctorow set up a blog to promote his book.

Neil Gaiman - Journal: Not only does Gaiman journal about his life and travels, he answers fan mail. I almost want to start writing to him just to see if I can get mentioned because that would be pretty cool, but I?m not an authorfucker (or a starfucker for that matter). Neverwhere had me so enthralled I couldn?t put it down, but I had no problem putting down and then quickly giving away my copy of American Gods.

William Gibson - Blog: I find it funny that the author of Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition recently posted about problems with Blogger just like the rest of its users did. But instead of the usual "Blogger sucks" and "fucking Blogger" rant, Gibson made it sound so much more profound: "Feels remarkably like being locked out of your own apartment, except that there are lots of people in there, having conversations."

Scott Heim - Weblog: Mysterious Skin made us all feel oogy when we discussed it in February, but he left us a nice comment anyway and thanked us for reading his book. In clicking around his new site, I noticed that it includes a timeline of high and low points of his life to date. One event seems to be missing: 02.17.03 BookBlog begins discussing Mysterious Skin. Realizes he has finally made it to the big time.

Michael Lowenthal - Weblog: "I can?t (won?t) be one of those folks who writes every day, or even every week. If I did, I?d never write the "real" stuff (i.e., novels and stories) that (sort of) gives me the self-inflated sense of my importance that (sort of) allows me to have a Web site in my name and to type these occasional notes with a straight (sort of) face." If it?s such a burden, dump the blog. Simple. His most recent work is aptly named Avoidance.

John Passarella - Passarella Author Musings: Who is John Passarella? He?s on this list because I thought Sarah might be interested. He wrote a Buffy book.

Pamela Ribon - Pamie.com: This longtime blogger wrote Why Girls are Weird, the story of a twenty-something who learns html, invents an online persona, blogs about a made up life, and develops a following. Hmm. This scenario sounds oddly familiar.

William Shatner - Bill?s Space: Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. T.J. Hooker. Author. Blogger.

Duane Simolke - Duane Simolke?s Acorn Universes: Although Simolke is a self-published author, Degranon and The Acorn Stories can be purchased at Amazon. I also added him to the list because he mentioned BookBlog on his web site and sent an e-mail to let me know. I never responded to him, which happens often because every yahoo with a book wants us to read it, but he?s the only one who was nice enough to give us a link.

Bruce Sterling - Schism Matrix: Of all the sites listed, this one is most like a real weblog in that it seems to be a collection of regularly updated links rather than a journal. I didn?t check it out too thoroughly, though, because I became fixated on the PayPal donation link featured so prominently next to the entries. I?m sure Rich laid out some cash for more than just Schismatrix. Doesn?t Sterling earn royalties?

Jennifer Weiner - SnarkSpot: An upcoming BookBlog author who has been devoting most of her blog to posting about new motherhood. Don?t forget to pick up your copy of Good in Bed and read it in time for August?s discussion.

The list above only covers fiction because there are about a billion non-fiction authors, especially ones writing about computers and the Internet, with blogs. And I?m not as enamored by non-fiction as I am with fiction.

I?m sure I left out a bunch, but it?s really difficult to google for authors/writers because everyone with a web site is an author/writer. I was also surprised no one had already put together a list like the above that I could steal in order to avoid doing my own legwork. If you know of any others, leave it in the comments and maybe I?ll put together a page here to keep them all in one place.

After first noticing BlogShares on KateSpot, I thought it might be fun because it�s a bit like playing the real stock market without having to put up any of my own money. Since I can�t do anything with, ahem, the Blog That No Longer Exists (a.k.a. The Black Page of Anger), I registered BookBlog as a player and spent my initial $500 in a matter of minutes.

For those of you interested in playing, I suggest you get in on the ground floor while the price per share for BookBlog is only $0.10. It�s terribly undervalued since there seems to be a glitch in counting all of its incoming links at the moment.

Is that insider trading?

If you enjoy bargain book hunting, check out Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller. They carry thousands of current and remaindered titles. The web site only lists a portion of the books available through their mail order catalog, which you can request online. The best part: shipping (US only) is $3.50 regardless of how many books you order.

[ link found via the discussion forum at BookCrossing ]

When I first created BookBlog, I never expected interest in it to go beyond its members. Since others have noticed us and our spirited conversations about our monthly selections, I thought I�d write a quick post sending out some link love to those kind enough to mention us on their own pages.

Bloggers:

Duane Simolke's Acorn Universes
Living Reflections from a Dream
metamorphosism
Morgaine LeFaye
Nam Nam

Other Web Sites:

The Complete Review
The Electric Ecclectic

Members:

[Andy] Introspection
[Cliff] This is Life
[Erin] Gigglechick
[Jaynee] Cootiehog
[John] Mudd View News and Reviews
[Kate] KateSpot
[Kathy] Wonderland
[Mary Carmen] Indie Rock Librarian
[Rich] Brain Squeezings
[Sarah] Fiendish Plot
[Tripp] Conjectural Navel Gazers

I was surfing around last night and came across a site called Book-A-Minute, which offers ultra-condensed versions of books (AKA book geek humor). For those of us who weren�t able to slog through all 1,000 pages of Don Quixote, this pretty much sums it up: