Weekend Edition: 9-11

Blog Headline of the Week

• Does This Law Degree Make My Ass Look Fat?

Worthy Reading in the Interweb Tubes

• Happy Anniversary (“Here lies a once proud nation. It died of self-inflicted wounds.”)
• Why I Will Not Write About This Latest Outrage By A Sick, Twisted Individual And his Followers Against A Target Group, Even Though I Am A Person Of Good Will (“While trusting in the motives of those who condemn Sick, Twisted Individual And his Followers, I worry that People Of Good Will are playing directly into the hands of Sick, Twisted Individual And his Followers, by giving Sick, Twisted Individual And his Followers the publicity that is their only real reason for committing this latest Outrage.”)

Bookish Linkage

• Watch out Oprah. An author’s appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart does more for sales of their book than a review in the NYT Book Review.
• Contrary to the trend over recent years, the WSJ is reportedly starting a book review section.
• The shortlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize has been announced. I haven’t read any of the six finalists, which could be because, according to Matthew, “one third of the six shortlisted books are not regularly available in the United States; another two, in hardbacks, are just getting to shelves this month.” I wonder if that’s why I’ve also read none of the books on the shortlist for the Not the Booker Prize Prize.
• The 2010 Hugo Awards were announced last Sunday. There was a tie for best novel between China Mieville’s The City & The City (which I’ve read) and Paolo Bacigalupe’s debut novel The Windup Girl (which I checked out from the library earlier this year but didn’t get around to reading). Also notable is that a podcast, StarShipSofa, won the Hugo for Best Fanzine.

H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy