- The mythology of Roberto Bolaño’s hard-knock life is starting to crumble: his widow says he was never a heroin addict, and others say he was not in Chile during the Pinochet coup.
- Slate takes a quick look around at the state of the book business.
- Russell Smith offers some reading recommendations.
- BookNet Canada asks: are e-readers’ claims to a greater greenness overstated?
- Stephenie Meyer still hasn’t gone back to that novel that got leaked; she’s now working on something else.
Bookmarks: Bolano, Meyer, and more
Bookmarks: More layoffs at Random House U.S., the credit crunch, and Richard Price’s behind
Sundry links from the Web:
- More wreckage at Random House U.S.: Pantheon Books publisher Janice Goldklang is laid off after 25 years with the company.
- How well do you know crime fiction? Take the Ceeb’s online quiz to find out.
- You know that heart-wrenching YouTube video, the one where two shaggy-haired hippies are reunited with their long-lost pet lion? Apparently, their story was recorded in a 1972 non-fiction book called A Lion Called Christian, now the sixth most requested out-of-print book on Bookfinder.com.
- They say that American pop culture is always more inventive when a Republican is in office. Now, The Independent asks whether the credit crunch has a silver lining for literature.
- If 2008 was the year of Roberto Bolaño, will 2009 be the year of Richard Yates?
- Richard Price threatens to bare his ass.
