Book News, In Brief

Via The Wall Street Journal, via Publisher's Weekly: Borders has announced that they will begin displaying the books in their stores with the covers face-out. They predict that this will decrease the number of books that they carry by 5%-10%, but increase the number of customers attracted to "shiny things" and "pretty pictures" by up to 25%.

From the IndependentUK: When Robert Fisk heard that his biography of Saddam Hussein was selling well, one thing bothered him: he had never written one. Click on the link to read about Fisk's trip to Cairo to suss out the fake him. I'll admit, the whole time I was reading it, I was hoping that it would turn out to be Margaret Seltzer. I miss her already.

Three months after Terry Pratchett announced that he has Alzheimer's, and two days after he donated $1 million towards Alzheimer's research, The Guardian UK makes this bold claim about the famed fantasy author: As a satirist...he's right up there with Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh. I'm slightly puzzled more people don't spot this. (Fans of Pratchett will also want to click here for a three part video interview.)

Time Magazine raves, Horton Hears a Who: Rated G for Glorious! "The new version...shows a pleasingly Hortonian faithfulness to the original story; and the process of fleshing it out Geisel's anapestic rhymes to feature-film length seems smart, sensible and organic." Thank goodness. Cuz after the filmic abominations that were The Grinch and Cat in the Hat, it was high time Hollywood got one of these right.