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Supplementing the rumors that the Booker Prize will be renamed the Rushdie Prize, Sir Salman has made some tabloid-style news in England (despite the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, the Telegraph is a broadsheet) now that one of his former bodyguards is publishing a memoir (“Salman Rushdie locked in cupboard while fatwa police protection team went to [...]

The New York Times (“Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” by Motoko Rich) gets into the debate about whether Web literacy is the same as book larnin’. If we are to believe the article, Americans have only two opinions: yes and no. Which is good, because a third opinion would be downright confusing to [...]

With post-apocalyptic tales capturing our imaginations of late, it seems high time to revisit an earlier take on the subject. (Would that make it a pre-post-apocalyptic work? Or am I getting ahead of myself?) It’s Tomes and Talismans, a LibraryVenture! (Thanks, Carlos, for reminding me about this!)

The inestimable Dan Kraus has worked his video magic yet again, with this digest of the Booklist Adult Books Readers’ Advisory Forum: Post-9/11 Fiction: Thanks, Dan!

I somehow missed this last week when I was home with the kid. Fortunately, my buddy Frank brought it to my attention: in exchange for a 50% pay cut, Publishers Weekly reviewers now have their names printed in the issues where their reviews appear (“The Reviewers Come in from the Cold,” by Leon Neyfakh, New York [...]

Way back on February 27, I poked fun at the idea of reading War and Peace via e-mail. A little while later, I thought, what the hell, you never know until you try. This morning I read installment 91 of 675, so I guess I’m sticking with it. It’s not the best reading experience in [...]

Galleycat links to a Slate piece (“Everyone Will Be Lonely Eight Months from Now,” by Seth Stevenson), whose exploration of “the weird science of stock photography” mentions a different kind of book-jacket trend: the ubiquity of Jennifer Anderson. Of course, it is possible for an image to become too popular. A few years ago, a model/actress living [...]

Vedran Smailovic, the “Cellist of Sarajevo,” wants money from Steven Galloway, the Canadian author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, for his role in the book (“Famous cellist claims story stolen by Canadian author,” CBC): With a stool and his cello, Smailovic once played on top of the rubble from a deadly mortar attack in Sarajevo. In [...]

You don’t see this every day: a memoirist questioning his own veracity (“Times Columnist Uncovers His Darkest Story,” by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post). The author is David Carr and the book is The Night of the Gun. But recounting exactly what happened is another story, which is why he uses the approach of interviewing people from [...]

Speaking of Theakston’s, Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves (2007) has won yet another accolade: Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year. Said Penney: “I feel a bit of a fraud,” she said, “as it is only my first book, and I don’t really feel like a proper crime writer, but I am delighted to have won.” [...]