Monday Turkey Hangover Catchup Links

All the good stuff that's been missed.

* The new book by CR fav Tom Bissell is reviewed in the New York Review of Books

* Reminding me of a post I put up here a couple weeks ago, Michael Dirda has published a book of 90 essays arguing that people should read more classics

* An article on the cadre of "post-1980s" writers in China

* I would agree with this:

I also think it's true that few blogs offer the kind of 20-page "sustained analysis" that still stands as the paradigm for academic publishing, but this is, as Rohan says, more a function of how the internet has been used so far than an inherent limitation of the blog post. Much valuable literary criticism is being offered on many blogs, both "literary" and "academic," but most bloggers and readers of blogs still conceive of a blog post as "essay lite," an attempt to engage in some "sustained analysis" without running on to umpteen screens-ful of text. There's nothing wrong with this, but it does reflect an attitude toward screen-reading that continues to consider it ridden with "screen fatigue" and other ills endemic to the act of reading online text. And it tells us nothing about the long-term potential of blogging and other forms of online publishing, especially when print periodicals start to disappear (as they will) and most reviews, essays, and articles are "printed" online.

This is how we read online now, and I admit to an "essay-lite" bias around here. (I top out at about 2,000 words on my longest posts.) But, that's not to say that a few years down the line, people might be more accustomed to reading online in different ways.

* Picador will now publish most of its literary fiction in paperback only. Good riddance to unwanted hardcovers.

* Gabbo's ghostwriter

* As reported widely, Amazon launches its ebook reader

* Love for NYRB Classics. I can hardly agree more.

* Publishers iincreasingly see book groups as keys to sales

* The Millions rounds up ideas for ways to give books this holiday season

* Critical Mass is discussing White Noise. Start with this essay.

* Critical Mass also gives us 11 Things You need to Know About the Executioner's Song. I've been staring at my copy of this book for a while, and I think it's time to give it a read.

* More evidence that we're overpublishing: a warehouse for books that no one wants.

* Why creative people are putting their work free on the Net

* I can see that there's still tons more links out there from the long weekend. Expect another linkdump tomorrow.