Asides

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The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, a new book by David Grann, my favorite non-fiction writer not counting Gawande: http://bit.ly/9PopEg

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The mention of snipers always brings to mind this Ian Rankin pulp-that-is-more-than-just-pulp: http://bit.ly/biMWEA

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Snipers might have found the war that needs them the most. Langewiesche on Afghanistan. http://bit.ly/bn7qrf

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Why Marlowe's still the chief of detectives: http://bit.ly/7BTlCG (via aldaily)

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A possible Salinger book deal that almost happened: http://bit.ly/cfyrC8 (via BoingBoing)

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The Onion has some inside dope on how the iPad was designed ;) http://onion.com/d1F1wc

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The fight against the common cold: http://bit.ly/8YyQeq

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Knock knock.

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Michael Dirda on the "new" Nabokov: "Posthumous collection of rough drafts and authorial notes" Link.



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Are reviewers just jealous of Malcom Gladwell?



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Would Roald Dahl have liked Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox? His widow thinks yes, James Parker disagrees...



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Video of a surprisingly long Philip Roth interview with Tina Brown of the Daily Beast.



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From the department of unlikely quotes, here's E.B White (Strunk & White): “I hate the guts of English grammar”  Link.



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Plagiarism Software Finds a New Shakespeare Play. Link



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Roth accompanies fans visiting the landmarks from his books. "Newark is my Stockholm and that plaque is my prize".  Link.



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He's 'cowardly, dysfunctional and immature'. Rushdie and Pia Glenn wash dirty linen. Link (via @SanSip)



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"Mad" bus rammed 20 cars and in the center of Perm. Link.



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William Deresiewicz's review of Atwoods latest.



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Life imitates Arrested Development: Prisoner escaped after swapping identity with twin brother.  Link.



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Do Beck and Limbaugh believe what they say? A David Frum thought experiment.



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Reactions to the original (New Yorker) story about Obama's increasing reliance on Drones in Afghanistan. Link.



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A Hilary Mantel interview from the Globe: http://bit.ly/40eS1x

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Great post on Jack Kerouac from The Reading Experience. http://bit.ly/42aoq5

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The former first lady as a literary device. http://bit.ly/4tRyWt

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And from the Guardian book blog, the Wong Fook Hing bookstore. http://bit.ly/3dG0f2

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Flashback from the LA Times. A '69 review of Slaughterhouse Five.... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/10/vonnegut.html

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Fascinating read. RT @manish_vij: ('96) India de facto banned 'The Moor's Last Sigh' by stopping imports (fixed review date) http://3.ly/cWo

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Price war over books worries industry. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/books/17price.html

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Junot Diaz talks about his struggles, and the things that made him a writer. http://bit.ly/pcNqJ (Via The Afterword)

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And here's Philip Roth on (among other things) Obama, again from the Times. http://bit.ly/4v0c2Y (Both links via @mathitak)

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John Irving interview in the Times UK.  Link.

“I am not at all at peace, or even comfortable, living in the United States,” he writes. “Both as an artist and as a liberal, I would not choose to live in the United States, but I am from here, and I have ties here.

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Wal-Mart vs Amazon. $9 bestsellers! Link.

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The cover of the uncensored, unauthorized Simpsons bio. Very cool. Link.  (via )

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'Look at the Birdie'. Previously unpublished Vonnegut story.

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The inescapable W.B. Yeats. http://bostonreview.net/BR34.5/huddleston.php

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Freewheeling Amartya Sen interview from Outlook.

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The Great Balloon Boy Hoax. More evidence that The Simpsons  have said everything there is to say about everything.

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Fascinating look behind the scenes at The Simpsons. (and how Fox tried to keep it under wraps) Daily Beast Link.  (via @bookninja)

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Libraries wade into digital lending, and publishers naturally want them to unwade. Link.

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Barnes and Noble e-reader looks like a Kindle crossed with an iPhone Link.  (via @npbooks, @mashable)

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The Guardian on the Disneyfication of Fairy Tales.

[...]the picture painted by the Grimms was of a vast, dark, world-encompassing forest in which still darker deeds were committed – and went unpunished.

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Barnes and Noble might debut its own e-book reader soon. Link. (via @bookninja)

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Report: Majority Of Newspapers Now Purchased By Kidnappers To Prove Date.  From, who else, The Onion.

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The Lost Pleasure of Browsing (for books and brides). Link.

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The National Book Awards shortlist is out. Eggers and Vidal to get special awards. Link. (via @npbooks)

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Banksy does to Pooh what Hirst did for sharks: Link.  ; Time offers a brief history of Pooh.  (via @nilanjanaroy)

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The Lost Prestige of Nuclear Physics. (via aldaily.com)

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THE BBC magazine on how it feels to suddenly have no identity. Link.  (via @the_magazine)

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Norman Rush has nothing but praise for James Ellroy in the NYRB.

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The Guardian celebrates the Mantel and Mueller wins as the "celebration of high quality over high profile."  Link

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After the initial angst, people seem to be coming around to the view that Mueller isn't so bad after all: The Complete Review, and The Literary Kicks both have good words for her.

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Rush Limbaugh to judge Miss America contest.  Clearly, the best judge they could find. (via @ScottEsposito)

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Jonathan Freedland: "Obama's Nobel: It Makes Sense in Norway" http://blogs.nybooks.com

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Nice piece on US reactions to Herta Mueller.  (via @MAOrthofer)

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Gladwell asks if dogfighting and football are really that different.

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"Complicity." A Julian Barnes short story in the New Yorker this week.

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The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, from the NYRB

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What happens when a Facebook addict deletes herself?

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Jennifer Schuessler writes - The Children's book's "ambition slows even its most absorbing storylines to a stutter."

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Here's Maureen Dowd's "review" of #thelostsymbol.

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From Conversational Reading, here's a German blogger's take on Mueller's Nobel.

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A tribute to Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on its 30th anniversary.

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Most annoying words in English . http://bit.ly/9CJIX Whatever.

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Slovakian parliament makes it illegal for its citizens to use any language other than Slovak. Link.

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Amy Ephron criticizes NASA moon collider experiment because it would 'throw off astrology.' (via mvatlarge)

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Roundup of reviews of The Infinities by John Banville at The Complete Review.  (via MAOrthofer)

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A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse and other emissions than driving for 3 hrs while leaving all the lights on at home.  Link.

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Raising Eyebrows... The Atlantic Wire rounds up reactions to the Mueller Nobel. (via)

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John Mullan on judging the 2009 Booker prize. (He liked Wolf Hall for its style more than the subject).

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NPR examines evidence to see if winning a Nobel leads to higher book sales.

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Elizabeth Bluemle celebrates the mad, bad & wonderful to know kids of children's literature  (via nyrbclassics)

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The Nobel committee really should get out a bit more. Link

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First 50 pages of novels (& excerpts of others) by Nobel winner Herta Müller  at Google Books.  (via npbooks)

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The AP reports on the code names used by Nobel members - Little Dorrit (Doris Lessing) and Harry Potter (Pinter). (via MaudNewton)

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Do read this interview with a personal favorite: Junot Diaz. (Registration required)

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Joyce Carol Oates on her literary mentors. (Free registration required) (via mathitak)

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Booker winner Hilary Mantel pushes Dan Brown to #2 on the Amazon.com bestseller list. (via BookNinja)

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What, me strident? Richard Dawkins disarms in this Independent interview.

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The Herta Müller page at the indispensable Complete Review: (via maorthofer)

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As @maorthofer predicted, Herta Müeller has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. (via MaudNewton)

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Two excerpts from Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning 'Wolf Hall': One and Two.

http://bit.ly/oFZni and http://bit.ly/rEvxF (via nybooks)

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Google’s Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles. Link. (via npbooks)

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Freakonomics sequel expected this month. Kirkus Reviews calls it "Jaunty, entertaining and smart."

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Murdoch after buying Myspace: "Now,we’re in the stalking business". Michael Wolff writes about Murdoch's war on the Internet in Vanity Fair. Link

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D.G Myers - "When I knew him, Carver was no minimalist" Link.  via (mathitak)

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iPhone App developers aren't striking it rich. ('cept the ones that invest their earnings in Palm) Link.

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Do the comments from the Nobel jury's frontman that the prize has been too Eurocentric portend well for Roth?

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Philip Roth, "ignorant, insular American" waits in vain for the Nobel that likely won't be his. http://bit.ly/26OcgT

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For all Dan Brown's excesses, his books are undoubtedly intelligent --[...]in terms of historical ambition and research. Link

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Kindle is now $259.

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VF week in verse. Link.

The headlines this week splashed “FORNICATION;”
In varying degrees of shame spread the tales of degradation.

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Nilanjana Roy analyzes the literary marketplace in India.

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Is Condé Nast the General Motors of publishing?  Link.

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Michael Chabon profile at the National Post.

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South Park memo to the MPAA. The Postscript at the end - "This is my favorite memo ever" -  just about sums up my feelings. Link.

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Was this the first terrorist of the modern age? Link.

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Hilary Mantel gets the Man Booker Prize 2009.

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James Wood reviews Richard Powers' Generosity in the New Yorker. Short take: Good ideas, horrible writing.  And in response to criticism of his review, Wood's adds: (via Bookdwarf)

But it is very hard to read, let along forgive, a novel that has lines like: “Thassa is twenty-three years old, give or take an era,” or talks about the “travelogue aromas” of her Moroccan cooking.

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Booker Finalists primer from The Afterword.

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Nobel Prize Countdown from the Literary Saloon.  Surely, Coetzee Ondaatje or Pynchon can't win it, coz I've read them.