Book News, In Brief

According to Reuters, Doris Lessing's publisher will read the 2007 literature laureate's Nobel lecture, as the author is said to be "too ill to pre-record a speech." Eff that. I know how to smoke her out. Let's start a rumor that there is no Doris Lessing; that she's just the construct of some young, gay, cross-dressing hustler raised in the truckstops of the Southern United States. Then she'll have to show.

Christopher Hitchens is still mad at a God he does not even believe in. This month, Hitchens will release an anthology, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, a sequel of sorts to his best-selling God Is Not Great. I don't know about you, but I worry that if Al Sharpton and Quincy Jones don't step in soon, that this is gonna end in a similar manner to the Biggie/Tupac beef in the 90s -- with Hitchens being gunned down in a car driven by Suge Knight, while Jesus gets a few more holes added to his stigmata after leaving a Vibe Magazine party in Los Angeles. Can't we all just get along?

It's like the Necronomicon in the Evil Dead movies! Via Guardian UK: "A 17th century book believed to be bound in the skin of a priest executed for treason appears to bear a 'spooky' image of his face on the cover, according to the auctioneers who are selling the book." (Remember when I said I wasn't going to recommend any books to y'all as gift ideas? I'm making an exception here. If you've got a germaphobe in your life, this would make the ideal gag gift -- in both senses of the word.)