Harper Collins UK tips its hat to a roughly 600% increase of downloaded books at Christmas. (The Bookseller)

And on that same track, IDC analyzes ereader sales and projections. (IDC.com)

The New York observer celebrates its first ever in-the-black year. (MediaBistro)

Fundraising has never been so naked. Behold ‘Men of the Stacks‘, a calendar of cute librarians (some of them wearing not very much at all) to benefit the It Gets Better Project. (January Magazine)

How libraries can help in these tough economic times. (The Twin Cities Daily Planet)

GalleyCat’s Year in Review adds a look back at the Big Stories, month-by-month. (GalleyCat)

The Guardian posts their picks for 2011’s Best Short Stories. (The Guardian)

And here’s a bit more on the upcoming TRACK CHANGES: A LITERARY HISTORY OF WORD PROCESSING, by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum. (The New York Times)

The Telegraph Book Club closes up shop and reflects on the project. (The Telegraph)

“On this day in 1917, H. L. Mencken’s “A Neglected Anniversary,” his hoax article on the American invention of the bathtub, was published in the New York Evening Mail. Mencken’s lifelong campaign to deride and derail Main Street America — the “booboisie” — had a number of easy victories, but this joke succeeded beyond his wildest dreams and in Swiftian proportions…” (Today In Literature)

In Ethiopia, Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, are sentenced to 11 years in prison for serving as “accomplices to terrorism”. (CNN)

A long, busy life of hard work steered Jim Henry away from learning to read and write. Now, at age 98, he’s an author. (USA Today)

Don’t you know who I am? Have a look at the history of anonymity in literature. (The Los Angeles Times)

Actor, Simon Callow, reflects on his love for Dickens. (The Telegraph)

Arlen Specter’s upcoming memoir will be of interest to students of American politics. (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Have a think on how the word processor has changed writers and writing. (The Verge)

Four authors look back on their favorite books of 2011. (The National)

Fiction, prescience, and running for President: Newt Gingrich and his writing partner, Bill Forstchen. (The Boston Herald)

Stanley Fish has a look at (and a sigh over) what’s become of formal literature studies. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 1904 Dublin’s Abbey Theatre opened, premiering W. B. Yeats’s ‘On Baile’s Strand’ and Lady Gregory’s ‘Spreading the News.’ Growing out of the general Irish literary renaissance of the time, the Abbey quickly rose to international fame for both the quality of its productions and the controversies which often surrounded them…” (Today In Literature)

Happy Birthday to The King James Bible. It’s 400 years old and still going strong-ish. (The Austin Herald)

Poetry and medicine in tandem is on tap at The Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. (JAAPA.com)

Author, Chen Xi, jailed in China for subversion. (The New York Times)

The San Fransisco Chronicle gets its Best Of list in under the wire.  (SFGate)

The New York Times weighs in on Harper Collins’ ebook library lending policies. (The New York Times)

A New York Ronald McDonald House benefits from a large book donation. (The Saratogian)

Children’s authors share their year’s favorites. (The Topeka Capital-Journal)

Kids’ books apps are ranked over at Kirkus. (Kirkus Reviews)

“On this day in 1936, Clare Boothe Luce’s The Women opened on Broadway, the first of its record-breaking 657 performances. Some reviewers (usually male) were more appalled than enthralled with the eye-scratching gossip of ‘best-bred hellcats and social filth mongers’ all dressed up in ‘ermined smut,’ but the play brought first-fame to Luce…” (Today In Literature)

Julia Keller opines on the glory of the perfect reading chair. (The Chicago Tribune)

Liu Xiaobo, Chinese dissident poet and essayist, will have his work showcased for the West come 2012. (Voice of America)

The Christian Science Monitor compiles a baker’s dozen of the best author interviews of 2011. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Last-minute ideas for gifts. Really, it’s the zero hour, people. (The Houston Chronicle)

The Association of American Publishers numbers are out for 2011. Best viewed on an empty stomach. (GalleyCat)

Author, Jeff Kinney, isn’t impressed with the DIARY OF A ZOMBIE KID riff on his series. (The Boston Herald)

The Telegraph gives the boot to nostalgia and looks ahead to highly anticipated releases for 2012. (The Telegraph)

And Kirkus does the same for upcoming children’s books. (Kirkus Reviews)

Caroline Walsh, literary editor at The Irish Times, dies at age 59. RIP. (Irish Times)

“On this day in 1823 the Christmas classic, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (commonly known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”) was published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel. Twenty years and much popularity later, Clement C. Moore claimed and was accorded authorship, but recent scholarship by forensic literary critic Don Foster — he’s the one who established the author of Primary Colors — has cast this very much in doubt…” (Today In Literature)

Novelist, Adam Johnson, recounts his visit to North Korea and the echoing absence of fiction there. (The Daily Beast)

Waterstone’s is apologizing for promoting MEIN KAMPF as the perfect Christmas present. (The Jewish Chronicle Online)

Catherine Britton combs for curs and finds ‘11 Beloved Dogs From Literature’. (The Huffington Post)

They’re making a list and checking it twice. Plus they’ve taken photos of Book Trees all over the world. (GalleyCat)

Slate regroups from a backlash against last week’s article and presents an alternate view of independent book stores. (Slate)

Here are a few holiday gifts for writers that you probably didn’t think of. (The Los Angeles Times)

Graham Swift’s, WATERLAND, banned from Michigan classroom. (Patch.com)

Presidential hopeful, Ron Paul, gets his own comic book. (Politico)

Memoirs get some love as their own special sort of book and for these ten selections, they get their very own Best Of list. (Flavorwire)

“On this day in 1849 twenty-eight-year-old Fyodor Dostoevsky was, at the last moment, granted pardon from a mock-execution orchestrated by Czar Nicholas I. Dostoevsky had been arrested eight months earlier for belonging to an underground group of political revolutionaries…” (Today In Literature)

Physicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, puts together a reading list for smart people. (GalleyCat)

Nine books that are changing the tone of mysteries and thrillers everywhere. (The Huffington Post)

The Guardian polls UK editors for a round of bookisk I-wish and what-ifs. (The Guardian)

Google Books finds an ally (and some choice content) in new French partner, ActuaLitté. (Publishing Perspectives)

Have a peek at few writers’ personal libraries. (The Atlantic)

Jenny Diski is not impressed with the state of contemporary literature and its publishing model handbasket. (The London Review of Books)

Psychology Today chats with Lou Aronica, author and founder of The Fiction Studio. (Psychology Today)

How very old-school: throwing daggers smuggled through airport in hollowed out book. (The Miami Herald)

“On this day in 1879 Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House opened in Copenhagen. This first production came as the published play was breaking sales records in Scandinavia, no doubt spurred on by comparisons to the dropping of ‘a bomb into contemporary life,’ and ‘a death sentence on accepted social ethics.’…” (Today In Literature)

Thousands of rare books and manuscripts lost to fire sparked in Egyptian clash. (The Washington Post)

Mariel Hemingway makes a pilgrimage to her grandfather, Ernest’s, Cuban home to mark the 50th anniversary of his suicide. (The Daily Mail)

The Associated Press catalogs the different ways a book might make their Best Of list. (Yahoo News)

Author-doll stocking stuffers? Or perhaps not. (The Guardian)

A Michigan town turns its citizens into authors with an anthology to save the library. (GalleyCat)

The Chicago Tribune shares its opinion on the Best Of books from this year. (The Chicago Tribune)

With his backlist hitting ereaders everywhere, Michael Chabon makes the case for why standard ebook royalty rates are a slap in the face. (Salon)

The weirdest thing about this book review? I didn’t know there was an Amazon Hall of Fame for book reviewers. (SfGate.com)

The Vancouver Sun has a Naughty & Nice list for 2011 books. (The Vancouver Sun)

“On this day in 1929 D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned in the United States. This was only one of a string of bannings from its first publication the year before until the landmark obscenity trials in 1959 (U.S.) and 1960 (Britain), but for Lawrence personally it may have been the most devastating…” (Today In Literature)

Czech playwright and President, Vaclav Havel, is mourned and remembered. (The Washington Post)

The New York Times

CzechPosition.com

Charter97.org

RadioCZ

Lucas Kavner traces Orwell’s influence through our two big literary losses this week, Havel and Hitchens. (The Huffington Post)

What a year. Have a look back on 2011 in book news and literary headlines. (The Telegraph)

What to give the writer who has everything, or nothing. (GalleyCat)

An EU inquiry into ebook pricing sheds light on Apple’s beef with Amazon. (The Guardian)

Christopher Meeks runs to catch up with the art and peddling of the publishing industry. (The Huffington Post)

The Guardian dissects a letter from Genre to Literature. Great stuff. (The Guardian)

“On this day in 1848 Emily Bronte died at the age of thirty. Of all the death and drama in the Bronte household over the surrounding eight months — events which now stand as famous and poignant as any in the Bronte novels..” (Today In Literature)

Edinburgh’s grand old, Central Library, is up for a face-life and a bit of cultural re-purposing. Gorgeous. (The Scotsman)

Kirkus Reviews compiles their collection of Christopher Hitchens’ reviews. (Kirkus Reviews)

Tiny Brontë manuscript (seriously, it’s not even an inch and a half tall) takes big bucks (pounds?) at auction. (The Telegraph)

Dave Sedaris chats with The San Fransisco Chronicle. (SFGate.com)

The LA Times Book sections gets a lot of 2011 recapping into just one short article. (The Los Angeles Times)

Where the writers go (and have gone.) Spoiler: they’re mostly in Paris. (FlavorWire)

The HuffPost Book Club gets the breakdown at GalleyCat. (GalleyCat)

An interview with the band, Letlive, finds them big literature buffs. (The Independent)

“On this day in 1946 Damon Runyon’s ashes were scattered over Broadway by his son, in a plane flown by Eddie Rickenbacker. Runyon was born in Manhattan, Kansas; he arrived at the bigger apple at the age of thirty, to be a sportswriter and to try out at Mindy’s and the Stork Club and any betting window available his crap-shoot worldview…” (Today In Literature)

Stephen King warms the bones he chills with his radio charity to heat Maine residents’ homes. (Bloomberg Business Week)

Have you heard of World Book Night? You have now. Mark your calendars. (DNJ.com)

Crime writer, Nancy Gelber, takes the write-what-you-know adage a bit too far and is arrested in Texas in a botched murder-for-hire gambit. (The Huffington Post)

A Jewish author gives his take on Christmas and the so-called war on its practice. (The Alaska Dispatch)

Bookman’s Alley to sell off its collection. (Triblocal)

Entertainment Weekly has a few favorite books of 2011 it would like to acknowledge. (Entertainment Weekly)

P.D. James takes up the Jane Austen baton with her latest novel. (St. Louis Today)

George Whitman, proprietor of Paris’ famous bookstore and writers’ haven, Shakespeare and Co, is remembered after his death at age 98. RIP, sir. (BBC)

“On this day in 1873 Ford Madox Ford was born (as Ford Hermann Hueffer); and on this day in 1913, his fortieth birthday, Ford “sat down to show what I could do — and The Good Soldier resulted.” Aware of Ford’s self-mythologizing, the biographers are suspicious of the birthday-conception tale…” (Today In Literature)

The publishing world pauses to remember Christopher Hitchens… (Vanity Fair)

Reuters

The New York Times

The Huffington Post

The Wall Street Journal

The Telegraph

BBC

Six hundred some pages might not be enough to tell the Steve Jobs story. (CNN Money)

Authors and Social Media, like love and marriage. (The Huffington Post)

A book on the value of good story telling might be a good story of its own. (CNBC)

Esteemed literature professor, Richard Stang, dies at 86. RIP. (St. Louis Today)

“On this day in 1901 Beatrix Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Having been turned down by a half-dozen publishers, Potter financed this first edition herself — 250 copies with her own black and white illustrations, given away or sold at a half-penny each because, as she put it, ‘little rabbits cannot afford to spend 6 shillings.’…” (Today In Literature)

Russell Hoban, author of the beloved Frances the Badger books and, sci-fi standard, RIDDLEY WALKER, dies at 86. RIP. (The Guardian)

Slate Magazine makes a case for shoppers picking big chain bookstores over local independents. (Slate)

Author, Michael Morpurgo, makes an appearance in the stage adaption of his book, WAR HORSE. (The Washington Post)

Steve Jobs’ biography is a smash hit in Japan, except for what they did to the cover. (The Wall Street Journal)

Agent, Byrd Leavell, seems to have his finger on the cyberpulse of the Twitter-reading crowd. (The New York Observer)

Barnes & Noble is anti-Christmas and the American Family Association has a formula to back up the claim. (The Washington Post)

Levi Asher talks about the trials of peddling a book. (LitKicks)

Check out music to write to. (GalleyCat)

“On this day in 1922 T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land was published — making something of a benchmark for modern literature, given that Joyce’s Ulysses and Woolf’s Jacob’s Room were also published that year…” (Today In Literature)

In a Forbes article (since removed) writer and grown white man, Gene Marks, makes the case for why he’d be an exemplary poor, black kid. (NewsOne)

… a bit more on this in Op-Ed. (The Huffington Post)

The Christian Science Monitor recaps the 10 biggest book stories of the year. (The Christian Science Monitor)

Patricia Cornwell has a chat about Scarpetta’s latest outing in RED MIST. (The Dallas Morning News)

The Google Book Settlement smoulders on with the Author’s Guild petitioning for Class Certification. (Publishers Weekly)

Multi-bestselling author, Amy Tan, writes her first piece specifically for digital release. (The Bellingham Herald)

For your eye-of-the-beholder approval: a list of the year’s most beautiful books. (The New York Daily News)

Kobo eReader compiles its Best Of list for 2011. (KoboBooks)

Author, C. Leigh Purtill, talks about giving her traditionally published book a second, e-life, once the rights reverted back to her. (MediaBistro)

Journalist and author, Jay Milner, dies at 88. RIP. (The Sun Herald)

” On this day in 1640 Aphra Behn was baptized. The precise date and circumstances of her birth are unclear, as is much else about Behn’s life, but her distinguished place in English literature is assured: Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister (1684-7) is seen as the first epistolary novel…” (Today In Literature)

Author, Harold Bloom, talks with The San Fransisco Chronicle. (SF Gate)

More good news from the bookstore cash registers. (The New York Times)

Kirkus culls the herd for its pick of the best indie books of 2011. (Kirkus Reviews)

Scottish crime writer, Denise Mina, set to adapt Stieg Larsson’s legacy into graphic novel series. (The Guardian)

Gaby Woods’ take of Julian Barnes trying to explain himself. (The Telegraph)

Have a peek at The New York Daily News’ new book blog section. (New York Daily News)

The New York Review of Books profiles author, Michael Ondaatje. (NYBooks.com)

Emily Ansara Baines read Suzanne Collins’ megahit THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy and was inspired to write a cookbook. (USA Today)

Kathryn Stockett talks about being a year late with her next book. (CBS News)

“On this day in 1784 Samuel Johnson died, at the age of seventy-five. The details of Johnson’s last years have been told According to Queeney (Beryl Bainbridge, 2001) or Mrs. Thrale or Fanny Burney or Boswell or later biographer-critics, but his large personality seems to escape, or confound, any one perspective…” (Today in Literature)

Malaysia mulls ban on book by Singapore’s first Prime Minister. (The Wall Street Journal)

Mealy’s Auctions to host an array of Irish literary treasures this week. (BBC News)

Times Books announces next year’s release of a behind-the-scenes look at machinations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (The Associated Press)

Levi Asher reflects on his reaction to Vonnegut and Vonnegut’s recent biography. (LitKicks)

You can make a vaguely spruce-shaped tower of books, if ya want. Then put some lights on it. Hope nothing catches fire. (GalleyCat)

Stuart Kelly defends this year in Scottish literature. (The Scotsman)

Drew Johnson has a chat with author, Lore Segal. (BookSlut)

Serve up the gift of a great cookbook to the gourmand on your list. (The Kansas City Star)

Four Arab writers take honors at this year’s Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Awards. (Gulf News)

“On this day in 1976 Saul Bellow delivered his speech in acceptance of the Nobel Prize. At this point, Bellow had written only fifteen of his twenty-nine books, but among these are his major prize-winners — The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Henderson the Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970), and Humboldt’s Gift (1975)…” (Today In Literature)

Author, Nicholas Evans, campaigns for organ donation. He knows whereof he speaks. (The Sunday Sun)

To honor what would have been his 100th birthday, a massive compilation of Naguib Mahfouz’s works is released by The American University in Cairo Press. (The Los Angeles Times)

The Writer’s Guild of America announces the WGA Award nominees for 2012. (MediaBistro)

What has comedy writer and actor, Mindy Kaling, been reading? (The Boston Globe)

Here’s a list of 32 that serves as the most recent in the crop of Best Ofs. (The Seattle Times)

Lyrics and gratitude, the gift of ‘God Bless America’ by songwriter, Irving Berlin. (CNN)

MI5 agent and author, Phillip Bracknell Ray, dies at 94. RIP. (Cambridge News)

Famed comic book artist, Jerry Robinson. dead at 89. RIP (The Washington Post)

“On this day in 1911 the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was born. He was the author of some forty novels and story collections, and estimated to be the most read Arabic novelist both outside of and within the Arab world…” (Today in Literature)

The book world mourns iconic fantasy illustrator, Darrell K. Sweet. RIP. (Tor.com)

Nobel Prize awards presented in Stockholm ceremony and broadcast on the web. (Rockefeller University)

The story behind lyricist, Hugh Martin’s, bid to accommodate Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra, and the evolution of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. (The Independent Mail)

Author, Bret Easton Ellis, weighs in on who should be Bateman in the remake of AMERICAN PSYCHO. (cinemablend)

Touré brings “post-blackness” open forum discussion to Baltimore. (Baltimore Brew)

Romance writer, Nicola Marsh, sits down with USA Today. (USA Today)

Stephen King’s A&E adaptation of, BAG OF BONES, draws a compelling performance from actor, Pierce Brosnan. (The New York Times)

Best-selling children’s author, Julia Donalson, details her formula on getting kids to read. (The Daily Record)

Screenwriter, Diablo Cody, talks about her success in the wake of her latest film, YOUNG ADULT. (The Huffington Post)

Presidential hopeful, New Gingrich, fall under scrutiny for mingling book-selling with campaigning. (The Washington Post)

“On this day in 1941 twenty-six-year-old Thomas Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist Order near Bardstown, Kentucky; and on this day in 1968 the fifty-three-year-old Merton died in Bangkok, Thailand. His accidental electrocution — a poorly-wired bedside fan, touched while Merton was still wet from the shower — came just hours after his address at an international conference of religious leaders…” (Today In Literature)

It’s the end of a literate era. Nobody reads any more. Bookstores are dying… oh wait. The American Booksellers Association reports holiday sales up 15.5% from last year. (Bookweb)

The newly-fashioned Bloomsbury Institute looks to be a hub for literary events. (TheBookseller.com)

Poet, Philip Schultz, tracks his progress in his struggle with dyslexia. (The Week)

If you arrest a writer, he’s gonna write about it. (HispanicBusiness.com)

GalleyCat looks at Amazon’s book review policy. (GalleyCat)

Darcie Chan’s self-publishing rise is a hot topic. (The Wall Street Journal)

Let the machine stack up your virtual to-be-read pile. (The New York Times)

Journalist and wine-writer, Robert Lawrence Blazer, dies at 91. RIP. (The Los Angeles Times)

“On this day in 1955, American poet Marianne Moore submitted the last of the names that she had contracted to provide to the Ford Motor Company for the new car they were about to launch…” (Today In Literature)

Let’s get some more Best of 2011 lists into play, because books make great presents and there’s still time to shop:

The Washington Post Slate Magazine Publishers Weekly Amazon.com The Guardian Kirkus Reviews

Austin Public Libraries School Library Journal American Library Association

…and the best in audiobooks (Audible)

whew.

The Justice Department turns its attention to ebook pricing. (The Wall Street Journal)

France struggles with projected harm to bookstores with new VAT. (France24.com)

Don’t miss out on some lesser-known magazines. (The Huffington Post)

Amazon lures self-pub authors with $6 Million royalty fund. (Mashable.com)

If you have an overdue book in Windsor, Ontario, you can probably relax now. (The Windsor Star)

Jaipur Literature Festival announces its format for 2012. (India Blooms)

RIP, Diana Colbert, wife and muse of author Charles Bock, dies at 41. (The Associated Press)

“On this day in 1980 Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon outside his New York City apartment building. There are two books by him (In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works), and many about him, but the book which will forever be associated with Lennon is The Catcher in the Rye…” (Today In Literature)

On the anniversary of the attack, author Craig Shirley, talks about his new book, DECEMBER 1941: 31 DAYS THAT CHANGED AMERICA AND SAVED THE WORLD. (The Washingtonian)

David Guterson wins this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award. (The Daily Beast)

Poets, John Kinsella and Alice Oswald, take a stand against the new hedge fund sponsorship of the TS Eliot Prize. (The Guardian)

Bad blood aside, Amazon and Penguin partner up again for the fifth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. (Amazon.com)

St. Martin’s Press defends its author, Lenore Hart, on allegations of plagiarism. (The Associated Press)

Nersys Lopez takes Cuba’s Literature Award for 2011. (cadenagramonte)

The best characters you never see are up for discussion. Do it. (Guardian Books Blog)

Journalist, author, playwright, Dick Long, dies. RIP. (Syracuse.com)

“On this day in 1929, Hart Crane hosted a party for Harry and Caresse Crosby, attended by E. E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Malcolm Cowley, Walker Evans and others. The occasion was to celebrate Crane’s completion of his seven-year poem, The Bridge, and its imminent publication by the Crosbys’ Black Sun Press…” (Today in Literature)