“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”

-Rebecca West

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Shankar Vedantam’s THE HIDDEN BRAIN: HOW OUR UNCONSCIOUS MINDS ELECT PRESIDENTS, CONTROL MARKETS, WAGE WARS, AND SAVE OUR LIVES scares the ever-loving bejeebies out of me.  The Washington Post says it’s worth the nightmares for the bit of thinking it provokes.

The San Fransisco Chronicle kicks off the weekend with a trio of book reviews.

HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown packs a punch in Kansas City.

The Pittsburgh Morning Sun takes a look at food activist/journalist/purveyor of horrible and interesting food info, Michael Pollan’s FOOD RULES: AN EATER’S MANUAL.

Alex Berenson discusses his suspense novel. From the PenguinGroupUSA YouTube description:

CIA agent John Wells returns in a cutting-edge novel of modern suspense from the #1 New York Times-bestselling writer.

Early one morning, a former CIA agent is shot to death in the street. That night, an army vet is gunned down in his doorway. The next day, John Wells gets a phone call. Come to Langley. Now.

Blake Wilson chats it up (briefly) with Simon Mawer. (Paper Cuts Blog)

James Hawes looks at Kafka’s Prague. (Eurozine)

Looks like this whole eReader thing might catch on (5 million devices sold in 2009).  (Wired)

The shortlist for the 2010 Edgars announced. (The Edgar Awards)

The finalists for The Story Prize announced. (The Story Prize)

Toby Clements profiles Martin Amis on the eve(-ish) of the release of his newest, The Pregnant Widow.

Happy birthday to The Rumpus, which celebrates its first anniversary today. (GalleyCat)

Rob Hastings looks back at George Orwell 60 years after his death. (Guardian Books Blog)

Arlo Guthrie and Gail Steinbeck rethink their opposition to the Google settlement. (Publishers Weekly)

R.I.P. Paul Quarrington, author and musician. (thestar.com)

“On this day, fifteen years apart, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953) and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938) premiered.” (Today in Literature)

“Soundbite and slogan, strapline and headline, at every turn we meet hyperbole.  The soaring inflation of the English language is more urgently in need of control than the economic variety.”

-Trevor Nunn

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For a dip in the deep end, The Boston Globe book section recommends Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s 36 ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: A WORK OF FICTION.

An unassuming little paperback cookbook makes a bigger-than-the-cover splash in Chicago - THE 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO EAT: AND MORE THAN 100 EASY AND DELICIOUS WAYS TO PREPARE THEM.

Not for the faint of heart, The Denver Post, still gives the good nod to SLEEPLESS, by Charlie Huston.

USA Today finds a fine winter crop of picture books.

And here’s a list of recommended reads from The San Fransisco Chronicle.

(Part I of my initiation into the world of eReading was posted January 19th.)

Before I even slit open the box (mostly because it’s not here yet - UPS has had it listed as ‘out for delivery’ since 6:45 this morning) I will say that the very best thing about the Nook is that it doesn’t do anything other than display book text.  I think it has a built-in dictionary, which is cool enough.  And I could maybe even get on board with the Kindle’s offering free Wikipedia access for - ahem - fact-checking, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.

Much to the disdain of people salivating for Apple’s Tablet, which will, by the sound of it, darn your socks for you while you’re wearing them, I know my Achilles’ heel.  It’s multi-tasking.  I’m so proud of being able to do ten things at once that my ability to enjoy one thing at a time has suffered greatly.  So when tech experts sneer that you can’t even check your email on the Nook, I applaud.  Maybe I’ll finally get some reading done.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the convenience of multi-use devices.  My sister-in-law’s iPhone is the niftiest thing ever.  But reading is different.  It’s an immersive experience that I have not honored, too often lately, by keeping one eye on my inbox display. I’ve even checked FaceBook between chapters, I’m ashamed to admit.  I need to stop doing that.  My reverence isn’t for the paper, or the smell, or the heft of the book (although I do not begrudge these tactile rewards for the people who cherish them.)  I don’t collect books and I rarely reread them, but I do keep them with me.

Their stories and their knowledge become part of who I am.  Their words erode my ignorant edges and cut channels for sense and sensibilities to flow.  All I want from my Nook is a sleek new way to get out of my own head so I can get back into it.

The other things can–  Eeep!  There’s the UPS guy.  I’ll be right back…

Okay, first impressions:

Well, it’s beautiful and it works.  I helped my mother-in-law set up her new Kindle and it’s very nice, but I actually find the Nook’s organization more intuitive.  (Do not even try to get it out of its packaging without reading the directions, though, or you’ll think I started off with a lie.)  The touchpad works very nicely.  I was skeptical of the virtual keypad, but typed in my info with no trouble.

I’ve set up the Nook and ordered Stephen King’s, UNDER THE DOME, as a celebratory treat.  (It downloaded in about half a minute, if that.) Barnes & Noble set me up with three freebies - DRACULA, by Bram Stoker, LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott, and Jane Austen’s,  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (blessedly minus the zombies.)

The complaint over the page turn speed has, as far as I can tell, been resolved by the firmware upgrade.  Honestly, if that page turn speed overly frustrates you, I may have to suggest decaf.  Life’s short, but it’s not that short.  Ease up.

Anyway, I’ve finished chapter one of UNDER THE DOME.  Two people and a groundhog have already died. This could be epic.

Merry Christmas to me and we’ll see how long my glee lasts.

ETA -

Well, I guess it does a few more things than just display book text, but it’s primarily cosmetic, so I’ve also now added my own wallpaper and screensaver pics, an MP3 of John Gorka’s, Jack’s Crows, and William Haskins’ book of poetry, SIXTY-SIX.  Easy peasy.  Excellent.

Four clips of James Franco’s portrayal of Allen Ginsberg in “Howl”:

Jason Boog shares some details from the new Allen Ginsberg biopic. (GalleyCat)

Gary Goshgarian remembers Robert B. Parker. (The Boston Globe)

Borders “playing favorites” with which publishers it pays. (Financial Times)

MacAllister Stone shares her views on all this “death of the slush pile” business. (Absolute Write)

The fifth annual Jaipur Literature Festival begins today. Olivia Cole reports.  (The Daily Beast)

Macy Halford tells ‘A Tale of Two Winstons.’ (The New Yorker)

Australian literary legends featured on a new series of postage stamps. (smh.com)

Amazon raises author royalty for those writers and publishers who use the company’s proprietary platform. (CNET)

Publishers scramble to protect eBook prices from the big players. (DailyFinance)

On this day in 1950, George Orwell died. (Today in Literature)

“One man is as good as another until he has written a book.”

-Benjamin Jowett

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Sixth-grader Felicia McGinnis shows that Nancy Drew - even after all these years - is good fun.

BookPage recommends Melanie Benjamin’s debut novel, ALICE I HAVE BEEN, as a cure for the winter blues.  Ms. Benjamin’s book headlines a line of fiction that may stack your to-be-read list clear through to Spring.

THE INCREDIBLE DOUBLE by Owen Hill is endorsed in Los Angeles.

Behind-the-scenes, or at least in-the-background, can tell so much.  Robert B. Carleson gives us GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM (MEMOIRS OF RONALD REAGAN’S WELFARE REFORMER.)

George Obama should do well with his memoir, HOMELAND.  And the Christian Science Monitor says that his blood ties are well down on the list of reasons why.

Author magazine interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Timothy Egan:

Robert B. Parker dead at 77. (NYTimes)

Erich Segal dead at 72. (Washington Post)

Philip Gross wins the TS Eliot prize for his book The Water Table. (WalesOnline)

Motoko Rich breaks down Rebecca Steads Newbery Medal win. (NYTimes)

Toby Lichtig looks at the rich history of apocalypse literature. (Guardian Books Blog)

Fresh Air features Patti Smith talking about her new memoir, Just Kids. (NPR)

Publishers reaching out to victims of Haitian earthquake. (GalleyCat)

Edgar Allen Poe toaster a no-show after 60 years. (The Guardian)

Terrorism hysteria puts the kibosh on Robert Munsch’s new children’s book. (thestar.com)

“This is the Eve of St. Agnes, on which young virgins obedient to various bedtime rituals — having eaten only a salt-filled egg, or having put sprigs of thyme and rosemary in their shoes — are granted a vision of their future lovers.” (Today in Literature)

“I can’t write if someone else is in the house, not even the cleaning woman.”

-Patricia Highsmith

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So, there’s me.  Come Christmastime, I was still hard to buy for.

My husband caught a break this past holiday season, though, because while I’m hardly gadget-happy, (I resisted having a camera in my phone for as long as I could) I have been intrigued by the eReader revolution.

There are legitimate concerns over piracy and document integrity, but those essentially boil down to issues of people-being-jackasses, and I fear that if that sort of problem ever stops innovation, we’re all in trouble.  It’s no small thing, to be sure, and I mean to stay vigilant.  (I’m trying to recall if my vigilance has ever done anyone or anything a lick of good. Stand by.)

I’m piqued at the notion of books as impulse buys, bringing them current with other things that can be ours at the touch of a few buttons and a credit card on file.  We seem to be all about the nifty and the cool.  Stories have always been cool.  I see no reason why reading can’t be.  And while the price of electronic books is the subject of some debate, I’m hoping that I buy more books with less fear of throwing good money after bad prose.

I’ve heard warnings of not being able to read in the bathtub (that’s okay, I don’t bathe) and the demoralizing absence of “book smell” (also okay, I have a muddled sense of smell, anyway) but I’m willing to risk it.

To that end, my husband ordered the Barnes & Noble Nook on December 21st.  B&N sold out of their initial manufacturing run and the reviews were decidedly mixed.  A software update has since zapped all the Nooks out there and, by reports, seems to have addressed many of the issues.  More updates are promised.

My Nook was slated to go out by February 1st, but I received my shipping notice this morning, so I should have it by this time tomorrow, Thursday at the latest.  I approve of this effort to underpromise and overdeliver on at least the shipping.  Beyond that, I’ll let you know…

PS - It’s okay, I shower.

A new page of children’s book hits Publishers Weekly’s site, and subsequently ours.  Enjoy!

Comic books are the hot topic over at Robot6.

The Washington Post’s review of UNFINISHED DESIRES sets up author, Gail Godwin, in comfort between the literary and the popular.  A publishing catbird seat, I should think.

William Styron’s first posthumous collection, THE SUICIDE RUN: FIVE TALES OF THE MARINE CORPS, meets with middling approval and some longing for more.

And January Magazine puts up its first page of fiction reviews for 2010.  Don’t miss it.

Paige Crutcher, the Nashville Authors Examiner, took the time (and a page) to profile me and AuthorScoop in an feature this past week.

Ms. Crutcher is to be applauded for corralling my ramble.  It’s harder than it sounds.  She’s an utter delight to chat with, so I offer up a link and a recommendation to her other articles, as well.

Thanks, Paige!

Ronnie Scott chats it up with Jonathan Lethem. (The Rumpus)

Apple announces event to announce announcement while pretending that no one really knows that it’s really about the tablet that everybody knows about. (NYTimes)

Apple in talks with HarperCollins about offering eBooks on its (mysterious…) new tablet. (PC World)

Imogen Russell Williams discusses the challenges and rewards of trilogies. (Guardian Books Blog)

Dana Goodyear profiles Neil Gaiman. (The New Yorker)

Jason Boog keeps ‘piracy week’ rolling on. (GalleyCat)

Dumpster divers, get ready. Borders is preparing to trash tens of thousands of books. (Inhabitat)

Twitter users jump the gun on Newbery announcement. (Publishers Weekly)

R.I.P. George B. Leonard, author and counterculture icon. (LATimes)

On this day in 1946, English author Julian Barnes was born. (Today in Literature)

“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.”

-Nadia Boulanger

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Publishers Weekly is timely with a page of brand new fiction reviews.

A space elf gives preschoolers a fun way to look at their world from a different perspective in Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi’s ADVENTURE OF MENO series.

Ross Bernstein gets tackled for his football tell-all, THE CODE: FOOTBALL’S UNWRITTEN RULES AND ITS IGNORE-AT-YOUR-OWN-RISK CODE OF HONOR.  His other behind-the-scenes look showed up the inner workings of the NHL fared much better.  Still, it looks kind of interesting to me.

And Ted Nugent is bound to draw a crowd (doesn’t he always) with his review of Frank Miniter’s THE ULTIMATE MAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE.   I hope the book’s as entertaining.