I know, I know. You are sick of me coming in here with all these lame excuses about not posting. Well, here’s one more. I am just bloody tired, that’s all. This holiday season wiped me out. It got to the point where I didn’t want to even read because it meant holding a book. But never fear, I am still reading aplenty and will soon, hopefully, post about some of these books. I am two quarters the way throough the delightfully different David Mitchell. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll leave you with some links in the meantime.

• New Boldtype available: The Obsession Issue. Everyone needs a good obsession.
• Robert Birnbaum speaks with George Packer about Iraq and more.
• Richard Nash won the Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing. Congratulations to him. Soft Skull is a beacon for small, independent publishers.
• The LBC lives. We’ll be announcing the next pick on January 15th. I’ll say that this round offered some of the most exciting nominees. I read some great authors that I was not familiar with before. Stay tuned. There will be podcasts, interviews, balloons. Okay, maybe not balloons.