Lazy Linkage

During my four day blogging vacation (otherwise known as the time period that I cleaned, read and slept a lot) many people compiled lists of links worth your reading time, so please allow me to point you in their directions:

On Saturday, Booksquare posted one huge edition covering everything from fanfiction to self-publishing, the discussion columns commissioned by the Written Nerd about ABA and Book Sense (the latest featuring special guest Carl Lennertz of HaperCollins), why some books get reviewed and some don’t, the Chick-Lit brouhaha revisited (by Book Dwarf this time), the demise of the SF bookstore (when I really think that SF itself has a chance at a comeback soon), and Miss Snark using cookies to illustrate a point.

Over multiple days, C. Max Magee has been a busy, busy man posting the long list for the Booker, the odds for each of the Booker finalists and pointing out Nobel Laureate Gunther Grass’ admission that he was in Hitler’s SS.

At GalleyCat, Ron takes the New York Times Book Review to task for sloppy reporting not once, but twice. Seriously, if you are going to slam book bloggers then try to get your facts right. On the other hand, this all kind of makes me want to read this book despite the “Nabokavian” overtones.

Laila, of Moorish Girl, highlighted Kevin Sampsell’s meditations on the popularity of the book blurb (food for thought from a man who is both an author and a bookseller).

On the Powell’s Blog, Jeremy Blachman (author of Anonymous Lawyer) talks about why he blogs. Sometime this week or next I hope to have a guest post by Mr. Blachman (or perhaps a review) after which we’ll give away an Advanced Reader Copy of his book. Free stuff. You know you want some.

There’s a new bookseller blog on the net, so head on over and say hi to BookstoreDeb.

For all of you Novella writers out there, here’s a chance to win some money. PW reports that Miami University has started accepting submissions for its second annual prize must be postmarked by October 15th.

For any Manga fans out there, yesterday MangaBlog rounded up a series of mentions of manga in the news. Maybe this is what we need to get kids reading the newspaper.

And finally, why don’t I have this book in my store? I was just wandering around a local independent when a small face-out of this title captured my attention with its compelling cover (and then kept it with the story found within the pages). Why haven’t I ever heard of Matthew Henson before? Given that he’s the “only person to be awarded National Geographic Societies Hubbard Medal posthumously” and his story has all the great elements of discovery and overcoming adversity, I’m highly disappointed in my education. Run out and buy this for all the school near you.

I’m off to continue my cleaning rampage, hope you enjoy your reading.