• Head on over to the LBC website for some delicious discussion this week of Jeff Ford’s novel The Girl in the Glass.
• The new issue of Boldtype went up this morning. This month’s topic is Taste and there’s an interview with George Saunders. Has anyone read his new book?
• This is amazing—the Brown Bookstore shall remain independent! The little guy wins!
• Also in bookstore news, the newly repainted Grolier Book Store reopens on this Friday, May 5th. The Globe recently profiled the new owner Ifeanyi A. Menkiti, Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley.
• Here’s your Kaavya Viswanathan update—they’re taking all books off the market and not bothering to reprint “updated” editions. Click here to stay abreast of the situation—everyone under the sun seems to be reporting on it. I particularly enjoyed Meghan Daum’s take on the whole mess.
• May kicks off Reading the World month, celebrating reading works in translation. Booksellers across the country (including my own store—can’t miss them as you walk in the front door) are displaying many exciting works written outside the U.S.
• Here’s a funny practical joke fellow blogger Jeff played on an author—luckily he didn’t get punched in the face.

Seriously, what’s going on here? I don’t want to thank Michael Schaub for this link because I was better off not knowing.

Like I just said, it’s Ticknor week over at the LBC website. There will be interviews, podcasts, and general book discussion. It’ll be fun!

It’s happening in my own backyard. According to this article in the Crimson and also in today’s Globe, Kaavya Viswanathan’s How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life might contain passages that are similar to a book called Sloppy First, published by Random House. Viswanathan, a Harvard sophmore, received a half a million dollars for her first novel. Dreamworks has already purchased the movie rights. She’s not responding to any of this yet.

The Globe has helpfully printed the passages for our comparison.

The latest round of selections and discussions from the Litblog Co-op starts today at the LBC blog. This season’s Read This! pick is Television by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated by Jordan Stump (Dalkey Archive, 2004). I enjoyed this book immensely and Dalkey provided us with an excerpt to post, so you can get a sense of the writing. Over the next 4 days, we’ll unveil the other 4 nominees and then we’ll devote the next several weeks to talking about all of these books.

P.S. I should mention that the next round, Summer 2006, will work a bit differently. We’ll only be discussing 4 titles, but we’re announcing ahead of time what they are so everyone has a chance to join in the discussion.

For a rainy Friday afternoon:

• The Spring 2006 Read This! Selection will be announced Monday, April 17th! Check the website out to see what’s in store and to read about a few changes we’ve made to the process. It should be a lot of fun–there were some good titles this round.
• The Morning News Tournamnet of Books draws to a close today. I won’t reveal the winner here—read it for yourself. I will say that it came down to 2 interesting books.
• Bat Segundo, man about town, spoke with Erica Jong recently. It’s available online for your listening pleasure.
• An email from the National Book Foundation alerted me to this great reading series in NY: Eat, Drink, and Be Literary. Coming up are events with Jonathan Lethem, Jacqueline Woodson, Mary Gaitskill, and Nicole Krauss. It’s basically dinner, drinks, and a live author interview. Too bad I don’t live in NY.
• My friend Ed had a horrible experience with San Francisco’s finest last night. I hope he’s able to recover today. Being somewhat of a delinquent in high school, I know that the cuffs are no fun. Power can turn event the best minded cop into an asshole.

I’ve gone on before (I know, I don’t shut up about it) about the importance of shopping locally. Here’s a great article from the Cambridge Chronicle that discusses local efforts here in Cambridge, MA. Frank Kramer, owner of the store in which I work Harvard Book Store, has lots to say.

“It’s not just ’Support us because we’re here’,” said Kramer. “Loyalty about shopping is about value.”

Can you believe it’s snowing here (Cambridge, MA)? It’s April! C’mon, cut us a break up here. For those of you stuck indoors here’s some interesting links I’ve found:

• Louise Solano, owner of the Grolier Poetry Shop (next door to my own store) has sold the store to a new owner. According to this article in the Crimson, the new owner loves poetry and plans to keep it pretty much the same.
• Powell’s has the best website. They have a wonderful interview with Sarah Waters. I love her latest new book The Night Watch, which is her first non-Victorian novel.
• Here’s another stellar Robert Birnbaum interview. This time he talks with Thomas Beller about diagramming sentences. And more.
• Michael Allen aka Grumpy Old Bookman has written a book. And you can read it for free.
• Reviews of David Mitchell’s new novel Black Swan Green are hitting the streets. Claire Messud at the LA Weekly liked it and here’s an interview at the Scotsman (thanks Bookslut for the links). For those in the Boston/Cambridge area, he’ll be appearing at my store on April 19th. Check here for more information.
• The Morning New’s Tournament of Books is down at the end of Round 2. Today the Beasts of No Nation takes on Saturday.
• The Washington Post has printed a handy spring preview of upcoming books. It’s a nice, long list with short descriptions of both fiction and non-fiction.

Sorry for the silence. I am trying to get all the LBC nominee’s read by the deadline next month, so I can’t report on those yet. Plus I am moving offices and training new people, while I move into a new job. All in all, it’s busy here. But check these links out in the mean while:

• Ed and I emailed back and forth about David Mitchell’s forthcoming Black Swan Green and now all of our correspondence is available. Here are part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
• Bat Segundo spoke with Ron Hogan of Beatrice while he was in town promoting his book The Stewardess is Flying the Plane. Apparently mid-life crises and film are discussed.
• Read about Round 1 of the Tournament of Books: The Historian vs. Home Land.
• Also at the morning news, Robert Birnbaum speaks with author Alberto Manguel.
• I’ve been enjoying Nextbook’s various new columns a great deal. Read Shalom Auslander’s latest column where he muses on writing a memoir.
• Wordstock begins on April 21st through the 23rd. It’s Portland’s Annual Festival of the Book. Similar to Charlottesville, VA’s annual Festival of the Book, which kicks off this week. I was just there this, a weekend too early dammit. Both event have a stellar lineup of authors.
• Tireless Dan Wickett has started a short story contest. He’ll wittle down the contestants and the final 20 will be read and judged by Charles D’Ambrosio (his new short story collection is awesome by the way). The winner receives $500.
• Maud and Ed both posted this article on one of my favorite author’s Rupert Thomson from the latest Boston Review.
• Want to read some short stories? Here’s Short Story South’s list of the best of 2005. It’s a very long list.

• Robert Birnbaum speaks with Uzodinma Iweala, author of the amazing, haunting novel Beasts of No Nation.
• New Boldtype, the month the topic is Competition
• Bat Segundo has been a busy man. He’s found time to talk to both Jonathan Ames and William Vollman.
• The New York Public Library has released its list of the 25 books to remember from 2005. It’s a pretty good list too–I am ashamed that I haven’t read more of them.
• Sara Ivy interviews Tony Michels about the Yiddish worker’s movement in the lower east side over at Nextbook.
• January magazine has been updated.
• Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield has been all over the place. Here’s an article from the Globe and don’t miss Deborah Solomon’s interview from this past Sunday. He’ll be appearing here at the Harvard Book Store today at 3:00.