Book News, In Brief

Cuz I'm a jealous, spiteful, nervous-for-my-livelihood bastard, I love it when I come across a national newspaper article with a title like Will Amazon become the Wal-Mart of the Web?


In the world of high stress, focus intensive, detail oriented jobs, copy editor at The New Yorker falls somewhere between bomb maker and bomb defuser. At least that's the way that Mary Norris makes it sound in her interview with Ask The Agent.


Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has already sold over 2 million copies. While I should probably use this opportunity to criticize the watered down brand of popular fiction that the corporate publishing houses are manufacturing to further dumb down the masses, the truth is, sales here have been gooood.


James Ellroy has already spoken freely of his teenage forays into window peeping, his nights spent breaking and entering (and then ejaculating into his female classmates' panties), and having a semi-sexual obsession with a murdered woman who looked like his murdered mother. So when NPR advertises an audio clip as "James Ellroy Divulges A Few Dirty Secrets," you kinda have to click the accompanying link.


The British Fantasy Society has copped to 'lazy sexism' as the reason their new horror anthology neglected to include any female writers. But the way I hear it, it was actually an intentional, vengeful, 'eff you' to all of the hot chicks who snickered at their trench coats and replica swords back in secondary school. (This was in the pre-Harry Potter 1980's, mind you. Back then, nerdy British boys were only considered cool if they acted fey and listened to The Smiths.)