If you’ve been thinking that I haven’t been posting as much as usual lately, you’re right. A combination of new initiatives (watch for a new newsletter, Booklist Online REaD ALERT, in early January) and sleep deprivation (I’ve been talking to my younger son about this) have taken a toll on my blogging. I’m hoping this will be a short-lived situation. Although I am taking all of next week off.

As I depart for the bosom of my family, please accept this humble holiday gift of–me. (I know, I know, even tinsel and ribbons can’t disguise Shameless Self-Promotion.) I have a short story, “If You Should Have Any Need at All,” in the Chicago Reader’s annual fiction issue. And if you should have any need for a little Graff prose next week…well, here you go.

(Cool illustration by Jon Adams.)

As the new year approaches, it’s a good time for stock-taking. And with the holidays upon us, it’s a good time for thinking melancholy thoughts. So here you go:

There’s no reason to think that reading and writing are about to become extinct, but some sociologists speculate that reading books for pleasure will one day be the province of a special "reading class," much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy, in the second half of the nineteenth century. They warn that it probably won’t regain the prestige of exclusivity; it may just become "an increasingly arcane hobby."

Yes, there’s a lot of deep stuff about the “antagonism between words and moving images,” but many of us started getting depressed the moment we saw the title of Caleb Crain’s New Yorker article: “Twilight of the Books.”

(If, as may be surmised by the research, you have neither the time nor the inclination to read the whole thing, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: get rid of your TV, although you can keep your PC–but no YouTube.)

From the Department of I Am Shocked, Shocked (”Lynne Spears’ Book Delayed Indefinitely,” Associated Press):

NEW YORK (AP) - Lynne Spears’ book about parenting has been delayed indefinitely, her publisher said Wednesday.

Lindsey Nobles, a spokeswoman for Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc., said Wednesday that the memoir by the mother of Britney Spears was put on hold last week. She declined to comment on whether the delay was connected to the revelation that Spears’ 16-year-old daughter, Jamie Lynn, is pregnant.

I like books, and I like libraries–and I think parking garages definitely need a makeover–but this still didn’t work for me. A little theme park-y, maybe?

It’s the parking garage for the Kansas City Public Library, as photographed by Jonathan Moreau. (Spotted by Ben Segedin, Booklist’s Production Director.)

We had the Booklist holiday party this afternoon, about which I will report only two things:

1) Bill Ott mixes a mean cup of nog

2) I was the recipient of the Don Chatham Spilled Drink Award

About #2, let me just say that it was nothing to do with the egg nog–it was a previous event. And, in my defense, I was not the spiller, but the spilled-upon. As you may surmise, there wasn’t much competition this year. (And, in answer to your question, yes, I will have my name engraved upon a plaque.)

(And yes, I have already alluded to a holiday party already, but that was the ALA party. This was the Booklist party. Later this week we will have the Publishing party. And you wonder why I earn the big bucks.)

Due to said party, there will be only one post today, but it is yuletide-themed. In the Guardian (”Every loo must have one“), Stuart Jeffries examines British (and French and American) taste in stocking-stuffer books and learns this:

“The Americans go for self-help books, the French buy unreadable philosophy books and the British buy books filled with trivia, which are often made up and generally aimed at being funny,” Nielsen adds. “Those are the stereotypes, and they’re not completely misleading.”

It’s a very funny read, as this paragraph demonstrates:

Oscar Wilde once lamented that “it is a very sad thing nowadays that there is so little useless information”. If only he were alive today, I would know how to fill his Christmas stocking: with books such as Why do Moths Drink Elephants’ Tears? And Other Zoological Curiosities; Skylarks and Scuttlebutts: A Treasure Trove of Nautical Knowledge; and This, That and the Other. Then there are The Interesting Bits: The History You Might Have Missed; Toujours Tingo: More Extraordinary Words to Change the Way We See the World; The Know-It-All Book; A to Z of almost Everything; Schott’s almanac 2008; and I might even include 211 Things a Bright Girl Can Do, a manual that instructs women - though one hopes not exclusively women - on how to strangle a man with one’s bare thighs and how to make Turkish Delight. I wouldn’t give him a copy of the Bible, because that would be presumptuous, but I would include Trinny and Susannah’s Body Shape Bible, which assigns all humanity 12 body shapes (Oscar would have been a skittle) and shows one how to dress accordingly, as well as Lose Weight! Get Laid! Find God!: The All-in-One Life Planner, both of which he might find obligingly useless.

(Bad language alert: readers will encounter the British spelling of the word “assholes.”)

Before there was Radiohead, there was Jeff Kinney (”Crossover Dreams: Turning Free Web Work Into Real Book Sales,” by Motoko Rich, New York Times):

That a book derived from free online content has sold so well may allay some fears that giving something away means nobody will want to pay for it. It also encourages publishers who increasingly scour the Internet for talent, hoping to capitalize on the audiences that a popular Web site can deliver.

"I think books are still things, thank goodness, that people want to own," said Michael Jacobs, chief executive of Abrams. "The package of the book and the way it feels is something apart and separate from being able to read it online."

Don’t look at me–I’m ripping my library so I can play my books on a Kindle. Not sure I have the right kind of headphones, though. 

(Read the Booklist review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.)

More news about Amazon. The French have found a distinctly un-American way of protecting small bookstores (”Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France,” by Peter Sayer, IDG News Service):

Amazon.com may not offer free delivery on books in France, the high court in Versailles has ruled.

The action, brought in January 2004 by the French Booksellers’ Union (Syndicat de la librairie française), accused Amazon of offering illegal discounts on books and even of selling some books below cost.

The court gave Amazon 10 days to start charging for the delivery of books, which should at least allow the company to maintain the offer through the end-of-year gift-giving season. After that, it must pay a fine of €1,000 (US$1,470) per day that it continues to offer free delivery. It must also pay €100,000 in compensation to the booksellers’ union.

Retail prices, particularly of books, are tightly regulated in France.

So, if you’re curious about where that handwritten J. K. Rowling book ended up, now the truth can be told: it’s on Amazon. Naturally.

Just one post today–to let you know about the launch of Booklist Online’s second blog, Book Group Buzz. We had some interesting conversations at the old Booklist Book Club, but what people kept telling us was that what they really wanted were resources to help them with their in-person (I disdain the digirati’s use of “meatspace”) book groups. And, by golly, that’s what we intend to give them.

Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist Online’s managing editor, has recruited a crack team of contributors, including:

• Amanda Blau, Children’s Services Program Coordinator for the Downers Grove Public Library
• Kaite Mediatore Stover, Booklist columnist and Head of Readers’ Services for Kansas City Public Library
• Misha Stone, Readers’ Advisory Librarian at Seattle Public Library
• Nick DiMartino, author, playwright, blogger, and bookseller extraordinaire

We’re just getting started, so please pardon our sawdust. But the bloggers have already been busy with posts about biographies, book groups, and more. Please read, comment, and help spread the word. We welcome both your feedback and participation–with your help, we can make Book Group Buzz the place to go for book-group tips, reading guides, news, and helpful links.

I’m on my way over right now.

• 44% of book reviewers enjoy a glass of wine while reading; of those, 78% prefer red wine to white; of the red-wine drinkers, only 8% declare malbec to be their first choice
• 92% of book reviewers have fallen asleep in the act (of reading)
• 3% of book reviewers have never had the thought that they could do a better job than the author whose book they’re reviewing

Those are only a few of the statistics you won’t find in the National Book Critics Circle’s new ”Ethics in Book Reviewing Survey.”

Interesting stuff, and either a sobering reminder of the inconsistency plaguing our trade or a wonderful reminder of the diversity uplifting our art. Although some of the most interesting and entertaining stuff is in the contentious comments–both to the blog post and to the survey results. From the latter: 

The ethical issues here are getting increasingly picayune.

And:

I have no knowledge of blogs and no opinions about them.