Bookmarks: The Tao of Wu, zombie hunter S. Thompson, and St. Anne of Green Gables

Sundry links from around the Web:

• Following in the footsteps of Kanye West and 50 Cent, NPR reports that The Wu-Tang Clan’s Robert F. Diggs (aka The RZA) is the latest rap artist to pen an inspirational book. The title: The Tao of Wu
• Halloween is just around the corner. Need a costume idea? Check out these literary-themed costumes. Zombie Hunter S. Thompson, anyone?
• Speaking of zombies, the Oxford University Press blog discusses our culture’s obsession with the dark and monstrous
• Think the new Where the Wild Things Are movie is too scary for children? “Go to hell … or wet your pants,” author Maurice Sendak tells parents
• Portuguese writer and Nobel laureate Jose Saramago says the Bible is a “manual of bad morals”
• St. Anne? The CBC reports on an Ottawa exhibition, the Canadian Martyrdom Series, that portrays Anne of Green Gables as a martyr

Who will win the Nobel?

It’s not quite the biggest reward that can be given to a writer (that would be inclusion in Oprah’s Book Club, or maybe Richard and Judy’s), but the Nobel Prize for Literature is nothing to sneeze at – just look what it has done for last year’s winner, J.M.G. Le Clézio (who?). The prize is to be handed out tomorrow, and the international book media abounds with speculation. That the head of the prize  recently remarked that the Nobel has been too “Eurocentric” in its picks has caused some to believe this is America’s year, with maybe Philip Roth or Joyce Carol Oates heading to Stockholm.

As far as the oddsmakers are concerned, however, the prize is most likely to go to Israeli writer Amos Oz. According to the odds posted at Ladbrokes.com, Oz has a 3-1 chance of walking away with it, the same German author Herta Müller (who?).

Alice Munro is farther down the list at 25-1, the same odds as Bob Dylan(?). Atwood is 40-1, and Ondaatje is 50-1.

Whoever wins, the odds of someone posting, within 24 hours of the announcement, a video mashup on YouTube featuring Kanye West interrupting the ceremony in Stockholm are about 2-1.

Kanye doesn’t like book interviews, either

A lot of bookish types were annoyed when rapper, producer, professional spoilt brat, and now author Kanye West claimed to be a “proud non-reader” in a recent interview. We’re guessing, however, that more than a few book tour-weary authors will offer up a quiet hallelujah at the sentiment West expresses at the end of a typically tense interview with Entertainment Weekly:

You know what I don’t like about the continuous questions about elaborating, is I’m not trying to give someone else a book to write. The book is itself. I just want to use this opportunity to explain to people why they need to buy this book. That’s what happens. Why elaborate?