- Lest you conclude that BEA was the sole locale for publishers to unload their neuroses, the Globe and Mail reminds us that people are bitching just as ardently about BookExpo Canada. Bitching Canadians? Is it possible? One wonders whether a BookExpo Mexico or a BookExpo Germany would spawn such ennui. Is the North American publishing industry hopelessly moribund? Perhaps allowing those carefully tailored publishing execs to immolate a piñata or affording steins and tankards to panelists in an Oktoberfest-style atmosphere might make everyone a mite more jocular.
- The Lotus Lyceum: a salon for fantasy fiction. Haute couture meets orc culture? (via MetaxuCafe)
- I haven’t yet had the time to peruse the Oxford American issue that was kindly sent to me, but thankfully Scott is one step ahead of me.
- Jeff VanderMeer needs dead people.
- Nice try at a metaphor, Ms. Doughty. But unfortunately, most people want the Atkins Diet.
- Frances Dinkelspiel has been chronicling the end of Cody’s.
- We were too burned out to have any meaningful conversation with the man when he came through town, but thankfully the Villager got around to chatting with Gary Shteyngart.
- “A Life in Books” (via This Space)
- Sarah has a new story in Spinetingler.
- Kassia offers more thoughts on Google POD.
- Critical Mass continues its NYTBR contemporary fiction watch and reveals why Andrew Sean Greer chose Kavalier and Clay.
- Why Internet dating isn’t regulated.
- Forget Snakes on a Plane. Try Whales on a Date.
- Cheryl Reed is the new Sun-Times book editor.
- The Ann Arbor News talks with Mark Binelli. Our own impromptu BEA interview with Binelli will emerge in the next Bat Segundo podcast.