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Book lovers may well imagine that the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest literary marketplace, is a kind of nirvana–commercial, sure, but nonetheless a jaw-dropping testament to the continuing relevance of books and writers. Those book lovers have not yet read Carole Cadwalladr’s lively, sobering report on this year’s fair (“‘It’s carnage…’ Inside the genteel world of books,’” Observer): But then [...]

It’s Friday. Knock off early and head to the arcade. (Thanks, Carlos!)

This is either the most romantic thing I’ve read all year, or the most depressing–actually, it’s both (“Love letter that sealed a death pact,” by Graham Tearse, Guardian): An open letter of love and despair written by renowned French philosopher André Gorz to his British-born wife, Doreen, has become an overnight bestseller in France after [...]

Film critic writes book, cries, finds happy ending, offers advice: write in Starbucks. I’m being glib. Partly. From the Star-Telegram (“S-T film critic’s book-publishing adventure,” by Christopher Kelly): That was when I realized that if you truly value your mental health, fiction writing is not the wisest way to spend your spare time.

Perhaps you’ve heard about this already, but if you haven’t, I think you’ll be interested. I saw this in Publishers Weekly (“Live from Frankfurt,” by Karen Holt) first, but New York (“Dave Eggers’s Next Novel Is Based on ‘Where the Wild Things Are’?“) included pretty pictures: Publishers Weekly reports that the Frankfurt Book Fair is [...]

Wow! Those crazy Swedes have made some surprising picks in the past (Elfriede Jelinek, anyone?), but this time they picked someone–Doris Lessing–that Ladbrokes hadn’t even bothered to give odds on. They even had Bob Dylan, for crying out loud. (At 150-1, I was sure I’d be retired by now–so long, kids’ college fund!) However, unlike some picks, Lessing is someone [...]

Talk about surprised expectations, Hermione Lee’s (Edith Wharton) prologue to her conversation with Philip Roth (Exit Ghost) closes with a surprising paragraph (the interview is from the New Yorker ["Age Makes a Difference"] but the introduction is only in the Observer ["An audience with Philip Roth"]): On our last evening. Philip takes me to an Italian restaurant [...]

The National Book Award Finalists have been announced. Surprises? Take your pick. Fiction Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski (Farrar) Varieties of Disturbance, by Lydia Davis (Farrar) Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris (Little, Brown) Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson (Farrar) Like You’d Understand, Anyway, by Jim Shepard (Knopf) Nonfiction Brother, I’m Dying, by [...]

F.O.B. (Friend of Booklist) Kaite Mediatore Stover has a new blog up and running–this one’s for her workplace, Kansas City Public Library. It’s called The Big Read, meaning that classic film aficianados and punsters still have “The Big Read One” available to them. Sorry. This fall’s Big Read is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. [...]

To mark the occasion of Edmund Wilson’s induction to the Library of America, “that clothbound hall of literary fame,” Charles McGrath offers a fascinating profile of “the most functional alcoholic in all of American letters.” From the New York Times (“A Shaper of the Canon Gets His Place in It“): Some of his most thrilling stuff, though, is the literary journalism he [...]