The radio show of Booklist’s own Donna Seaman, Open Books, is now airing on Chicago’s NPR affiliate, WBEZ, on select Sunday nights. Be sure to tune in this Sunday, February 17, at 9 p.m. (Central) as she talks with author Nancy Goldstein about her book Jackie Ormes: The First African American Woman Cartoonist–just reviewed in our February 1 Black History Spotlight–and also cartoonist Tim Jackson (visit his site for the “Pioneering Cartoonists of Color” list).

(If you’re in Chicagoland, dial in 91.5. If you’re not, you can get streaming audio on the WBEZ site.)

While I actually own an inscribed copy of Elisha Cooper’s Crawling–which I received, due to an unusual confluence of events, at a Chicago Bulls game–I didn’t know I’d be Trendspotting (TM) until I stumbled across Mimi Schwartz’s Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed.

I realize that two books published five years apart isn’t really a trend–but you have to admit that they look striking together. And I’m certain there’s another similar cover out there. Anyone? Anyone?

…and other ways that documentary editors use to determine authors’ intent. On Slate, more on the Robert Frost problem (”The Impossible Art of Deciphering Manuscripts,” by Megan Marshall):

One such reference seems to have tripped up Robert Faggen. A passage in which Frost alluded to fifth-century Mediterranean voyager Hanno the Carthaginian came out as “Hannof the Carlingian.” Context is all. That same sentence mentioned the “coast of West Africa.” Carthage, at least, should have popped to mind. In another passage, in which Frost compared a poet’s early drafts to a baseball player’s trial swings before stepping up to the plate, Faggen offered the phrase “picktie exhibition.” Yes, “public” was hard to read - but even a “pickle” exhibition would have made more sense. When you’re reduced to “counting humps,” as documentary editors refer to those moments of despair when they find themselves decoding words letter by letter, you know you’re in trouble. And, as always, the more complete read-throughs, the better. Faggen actually corrected himself on Hanno farther down on the same page, and got the annotation right. But the first mistaken reference remained for critics to pounce on.

Be sure to watch the slide show. It’ll curl your hair.

More in a similar vein–except substitute Harvard for Oprah. And periodicals for books. From the New York Times (”At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on the Web,” by Patricia Cohen):

Publish or perish has long been the burden of every aspiring university professor. But the question the Harvard faculty will decide on Tuesday is whether to publish - on the Web, at least - free.

Faculty members are scheduled to vote on a measure that would permit Harvard to distribute their scholarship online, instead of signing exclusive agreements with scholarly journals that often have tiny readerships and high subscription costs.

The concept–an open-access publishing system that would require authors to “opt out” if they didn’t want their works to be published for free–is, of course, controversial. And, as one prof notes, it’s redundant in a way, because already, thanks to technology, "any professor who wants to put his or her article up online can."

And Stuart Shieber, a professor of computer science, proves the value of a Harvard education:

"As far as I know, everyone I’ve ever talked to is supportive of the underlying principle. Still there is a difference between an underlying principle and specific proposal."

It seems like everybody’s offering free downloads this week. Well, not everybody–some folks are selling by the chapter. But, anyway, Oprah’s offering free downloads of Suze Orman’s Las Mujeres y El Dinero (and its English-language translation, Women & Money, too)–but only until tomorrow evening. And you’re not allowed to share it. Frankly, I’m so concerned about my overpowering desire to share that I’m going to nip this one in the bud and not download it.

Like this: “O. J. Simpson’s Former Agent to Publish Book: How I Helped O. J. Get Away with Murder,” by Leon Neyfakh, The New York Observer.

Brought to you by Regnery Publishing.

Pol’ Atteu & Patrik Simpson v. Jody (Babydol) Gibson (”Authors of new Anna Nicole book sue their own publisher,” Ben Widdicombe, Daily News):

Simpson and Atteu acknowledge signing an agreement with Gibson, but told me Monday they regarded the document as a “draft.” And quite apart from making any money from the book, they say they gave her $3,000 toward expenses.

“We didn’t know they were supposed to give us an advance,” Simpson told me. “We just wanted to put out a beautiful tribute to our friend [Smith]. [Gibson] is a convicted criminal; we didn’t know the extent of everything she was doing.”

Estate of J. R. R. Tolkien & HarperCollins v. New Line Cinema (”Lord of the Rings heirs sue New Line Cinema over $6bn blockbusters,” by Amanda Andrews, Times Online):

Bonnie Eskenazi, the trustees’ US counsel who filed the complaint, said: “New Line has brought new meaning to the phrase ‘creative accounting’. I cannot imagine how on earth New Line will argue to a jury that these films could gross literally billions of dollars, and yet the creator’s heirs, who are entitled to a share of gross receipts, don’t get a penny.”

Nicolas Cage v. Kathleen Turner (”Turner rattles Nicolas’ cage,” Rush & Molloy, Daily News):

Kathleen Turner has been hit with a lawsuit by Nicolas Cage after the raspy-voiced actress wrote in her new autobiography that he was twice arrested for DUI and possibly stealing a Chihuahua.

“I have never been arrested for anything in my life, nor have I stolen a dog,” Cage, Turner’s co-star in “Peggy Sue Got Married,” fumed in a statement.

Free books (”HarperCollins Will Post Free Books on the Web,” by Motoko Rich, New York Times)…

In an attempt to increase book sales, HarperCollins Publishers will begin offering free electronic editions of some of its books on its Web site, including a novel by Paulo Coelho and a cookbook by the Food Network star Robert Irvine.

…and by-the-chapter (”Random House and HC Test Drive Online Access to Their Books,” by Jim Milliot and Rachel Deahl, Publishers Weekly):

In the Random test, Chip Heath and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, published in hardcover in January 2007, is being made available in six chapters and an epilogue - the content bunches are priced individually at $2.99 each - at www.randomhouse.com/madetostick. Consumers who buy a chapter will receive an e-mail with a link for downloading the purchased file, which cannot be shared electronically.

While the first idea isn’t really anything more than Amazon is doing with “Search Inside!,” I’m very excited about the second idea. As soon as they extend it to fiction, I’ll be able to buy John Grisham novels the way I’ve always wanted to–every other chapter.

Or should that be “how-to-read books”? In the Independent, D. J. Taylor’s review of James Wood’s How Fiction Works mentions the “very considerable critical sub-genre: the literary user’s manual.” Which includes:

How to Read a Novel, by John Sutherland (2006)

How Novels Work, by John Mullan (2006)

Fifty-Two Ways to Read a Poem, by Ruth Padel (2002)

Aspects of the Novel, by E. M. Forster (1927)

Not to mention:

Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose (2006)

Reading Comics, by Douglas Wolk (2007)

On the how-to-review-a-book front, would-be reviewers should take note of Taylor’s first paragraph, which certainly made me want to read the rest of his review:

Whatever one may think about James Wood’s constant ejaculations, his ceremonious name-dropping (”W G Sebald once said to me…”) and his lecture-hall mannerisms - more of these in a moment - he really is an A-grade exponent of what university syllabi used to call “practical criticism”. Some of the best bits of this brief but luminous primer - and they are very good indeed - come when Wood strips the engine of some fabled fictional juggernaut down to its component parts with the aim of establishing just how a piece of prose works to bring off its effects, the way in which, as he puts it, a novel “teaches us how to read its narrator”.

Trying to catch up on a few older items today. The National Book Critics Circle’s “Best Recommended” list is now “Good Reads“–but the new list is still susceptible to some of the same old criticisms, capably voiced by Ron Hogan on Galleycat:

If you were ever truly fascinated by what a cluster of people “from Annie Proulx to Jonathan Franzen” were reading, well, now you know. Feel particularly moved to buy any of those books now?

And the worst thing is you should, since the books are all perfectly good books, some of them even great books. But a list created by committee that doesn’t even offer a capsule description of its contents, or even a one-line blurb, just isn’t the same as a genuinely passionate recommendation from someone whose judgment you trust.

Like Hogan, I think the list is a decent idea–just one that needs some refinement.

Fiction

Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson (Farrar)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
Diary of a Bad Year, by J. M. Coetzee  (Viking)
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
Zeroville, by Steve Erickson (Europa)

Nonfiction

The Rest Is Noise, by Alex Ross (FSG)
Brother, I’m Dying, by Edwidge Danticat (Knopf)
In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan (Penguin)
Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks (Knopf)
The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein (Metropolitan)

Poetry

Elegy, by Mary Jo Bang (Graywolf)
Time and Materials, by Robert Hass (Ecco)
Gulf Music, by Robert Pinsky (FSG)
The Collected Poems, 1956-1998, by Zbigniew Herbert (Ecco)
Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow (Harper)