This guy refuses to by Da Vinci Code in hardcover. He’s been waiting for the paperback for over 2 years. Keep waiting, friend. They will bleed that damn book dry. You know they will issue several new editions for the movie whenever that comes out. I am so sick of Da Vinci, Da Vinci that. I’m with Michael Schaub (I stole these links from him), who says that Stacy Schiff is his new hero. “But ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is not a work of nonfiction. If one more person talks to me about Dan Brown’s crackerjack research I’m shooting on sight.” It sends shivers down my spine.

Another panel from Dan Wickett, this time questions for independent bookstores: Nicki Leone of Bristol Books in Wilmington, NC, Neil Strandberg of Tattered Cover in Denver, CO, and RoseMarie London of Chickering Bookstore in Laramie, WY. Good questions and good answers.

I can’t believe that I forgot to include this in my BEA post. I met Maud Newton! She was very kind, beautifully dressed with sexy glasses. And she urged me to read more Rupert Thomson. I’ve been unable to find The Insult in our Used departement, which she says is best, but I have found a copy of The Book of Revelation. Divided Kingdom comes out this month (6/14 to be exact) and everyone should read it. It’s one of the better books I’ve read this year.

I thought of pulling together some links about BEA, but gave up. There’s a whole lot of them. Some of the links to the left have great coverage too. While I was away, Dan Wickett posted another of his group interviews, this time with some more literary bloggers. It’s a great group, including Robert Gray from Northshire Books. I wanted to meet him at BEA, and in fact, several people suggested we meet. Alas I could never find him. We have some things in common, notably both being booksellers and bloggers. Anyway, it’s a good interview.
I will try to post some reviews soon as well. I’ve been on a reading tear lately. I only finished 2 books in NY: The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman and Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa by Karin Muller. Both were interesting in their own ways, but I will get to that later.

Sorry for my lapses in posts. I got back very late Monday night from BEA, which was in NYC. I am so tired and have so much work with which to catch up. To give you an idea of what BEA is like, read this Observer article. Yes, it is sarcastic and pessimistic, but most of it is true.

I arrived by train on Thursday and after some crappiness at my hotel headed over to the show. Unfortunately, I some of the more fun panels, including the blogging one. I had to go shopping, you see, to find something to wear to the big LBC party at the Slipper Room. There (suitably dressed) I finally met some of my fellow bloggers: Ed, Mark, Laila, Michael, Bud, Ron, and Sarah. We had a lot of fun and met many great people, some in publishing, some authors (Martha Cooley and Kelly Link spring to mind), and some readers. The bar cleared at 8:30 or so, and instead of heading to one of the other publishing parties, I headed to the Mermaid Inn on 2nd Ave. to meet my sister and her husband. Great food, great company, plus Keanu Reeves was there.

Friday, we arrive bright and early for the opening of the show floor. Chaos is one word to describe it. People came armed with more than 5 tote bags sometimes, even though every other booth were giving away free bags. By the time I got to the Booksense Luncheon at noon, I had had several unwanted books shoved into my arms, necessitating getting one of these bags. But the attendees filled them much more quickly and made it impossible to navigate the floor in a sane manor. I am pretty sure I bowled over some poor woman from the mid-West as I hurried the ‘Future of the Graphic Novel’ panel in the afternoon. Chip Kidd (who has a wonderful retrospective coming from Rizzoli by the way) moderated, with Adrian Tomine, Frank Miller, Brad Meltzer, Charles Burns, and Harvey Pekar. Interesting discussion, though they focused more on each artist’s individual upcoming works rather than on graphic novels in general, which was what I wanted. They did discuss briefly the growing popularity of comics and the trend of the big publishing houses that are now producing some graphic novels, Pantheon (part of Random House) for instance. There’s been an underground aspect to parts of the graphic novel community for years, and like indie rock music, one wonders if signing with a big house is selling out. I am not siding with one or the other. Just stating the arguments (ineptly). Harvey Pekar, who self-published much of his early work, said, “I don’t know about anybody else, but money means a lot to me.” Basically saying that the “romantic” idea of self-publishing in reality is a pain in the ass. And then the floor was opened to questions, most of which frankly were rather dumb. “How can we get more literary graphic novels?” is sort of a slap in the face to many of the panelists, at least I thought. They responded pretty well (not outright calling her a dumbass). After the panel, I raced over to the signing area and got some autographs.

It had started raining by the time I was leaving and I thought,naively, I will walk up a block or two and grab a cab. I had accepted an invitation to the Bloomsbury Walker dinner, which started at 7, and I didn’t want to be late. I walk in the rain up a few blocks, where I see a man collapse in an epileptic fit cracking open his head on the sidewalk. Luckily, some other BEA goers attended to him. But now how was I going to get a cab (yes, I was being an asshole)? An hour later I made it back to the hotel after waiting in line at Penn station for 45 minutes. I was an hour late to the dinner and missed my chance at mingling with Anthony Bourdain, Patrick McGrath, Ross King, Dava Sobel, and others. I did meet Susannah Clarke and Jim Lynch, who were both charming.

Saturday was more of the same for the show. I did see Sarah on the panel called ‘What We Know About Our Readers: A Mystery and Suspense Media Perspective’. Several other panelists from various Mystery publications spoke quite eloquently about the Mystery audience. Sarah has a better rundown on Publisher’s Lunch (second item). I left a little earlier that evening so I could make it to a bunch of exciting parties (on the way back to the hotel, I saw another person collapse on the sidewalk. This time it was a woman who had stopped breathing. I was hoping it was not an omen of some kind or a portent because I ignored it). First up was the Harper Perennial party at Mario Batali’s Otto. I love Batali and was hoping to meet him. Alas, I didn’t see him, but Harper had an astonishing array of authors present. I managed to make an ass out of myself with Francine Prose, chatted with George Crane (who is one of the more interesting people I met and whose books Bones of the Master and Beyond the House of the Lama I now want to read), and others. I left there and headed to the Cellar Bar in the Bryant Park Hotel to attend the Henry Holt party. It’s a nice bar and they even make their waitresses wear these skimpy S&M outfits. Authors I met there were Thomas Frank and Paul Auster. I also spent some time chatting with Oscar Villalon, Book Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Michael Newirth, Fiction Editor of Bridge Magazine. I had a great time talking with them both about books and book reviews (the Globe was mentioned). The night was still young, so I walked over to meet a coworker at the Hammerstein Ballroom to the PGW party, which promised to be the young, hip party of the evening. And failed. Everyone I met, except this random woman from Barnes & Noble (eww), were very nice. Ed and I circulated the crowded area chatting with people and I spent more time talking with Oscar, ranting about book reviews (third party=more drinking). The noise eventually got to me, and even other booksellers couldn’t convince me to stay out. I had to get up very early the next day….

7 o’clock to be precise. The big Author Breakfast began at 8. Bob Herbert hosted Umberto Eco, Barbara Ehrenreich, and John Irving. I managed to stay awake. Mostly. The breakfast part was a sham. They gave us a basket of muffins and coffee. But the authors were great. I’ve always been a fan of Bob Herbert. Umberto Eco is very funny, as is Barbara Ehrenreich. And John Irving cracked a few jokes as well. Most of the people I met at the show were pleasant, if not nice. Except for Umberto Eco’s handler. I saw him heading toward a booth and thought to get him sign my copy of his book. I’ve been a fan of his for years. She icily (and bitchily) said no. The rest of the day I spent visiting publishers with regards to work. And I met my sister for dinner again at a great sushi place Blue Ribbon Sushi.

The day after BEA, the IBC, or Independent Booksellers Consortium, meets and discusses, well, books and bookstores. It was enlightening for me, as a first time attendee. Then we made our 5 o’clock train home, where I zoned out and read.

Big name authors aside, I more enjoyed meeting many nice booksellers and university press people. They are in the book business for personal reasons, rather than gain (though gain is nice). It’s pretty hard to talk to the more well-known authors without sounding like a sycophant or asshole. That in a nutshell was my BEA experience. Any questions?

From yesterday’s deals at Publisher’s Lunch:

enni Kosarin’s HE’S JUST NOT IN THE STARS: Wicked Astrology and Uncensored Advice for Getting the (Almost) Perfect Guy, an irreverent guide that reveals the inner workings of your boyfriend, your potential boyfriend, your husband, potential husband, and even your ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands, by combining both his Sun and Venus signs, to Mauro Di Preta at Harper Entertainment, by Molly Lyons and Joelle Delbourgo at Joelle Delbourgo Associates (NA).

C’mon. Enough already.

Don’t forget that tomorrow Reagan Arthur, Kate Atkinson’s editor at Little, Brown, will be appearing at the Litblog Co-op tomorrow, Thursday, May 26th. She’ll answer questions and discuss all sorts of interesting book things. Be there or be square.

While I am working on the Globe Review review, here are some links for your leisure.

Tireless Dan Wicket has 2 new links. In the first, he interviews David Karashima, who translated Hitomi Kanehari’s Hebi ni Piasu into the English version, titled Snakes and Earrings. There’s an interview with Kanehari forthcoming. In the second, he interviews 9 editors of literary journals.

Have I ever mentioned Powell’s Review-A-Day? They post a new review each day from several magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly, The Christian Science Monitor, and TLS. Some of these are only available if you buy the magazine, so it’s a nice deal.

Uncle Red has one of his trademark lengthy interviews with novelist Kevin Guilfoile, whose first novel Cast of Shadows was recently published.

And everyone should go over to the LBC’s website. There’s an interesting discussion (ahem, fight) over what is literary, what is mainstream, etc. Also, the author of Case Histories Kate Atkinson, her editor , and her agent will be making appearances soon.

Here I am sitting in my office at the end of a very long Monday, flipping through the growing piles of Fall catalogs. I come across this in the Miramax Books catalog: Junior: A Novel by Macaulay Culkin. Seriously. Here’s what is says:

In a dizzying kaleidescope of words and images, actor and writer Macaulay Culkin takes readers on a twisted tour to the darkest corners of his fertile imagination. Part memoir, part rant, part comedic tour de force, Junior is full of hard-won wisdom of Culkin’s quest to come to terms with the awesome pressures of childhood mega-stardom and family dysfunction. He understands that “having fun and being happy are two totally different things,” yet at the same times he warns, “the end of the world is coming—and I’m going to have unfinished business.” Searingly honest and brainteasingly inventive, Junior is breathtaking proof that Culkin has found his own utterly original voice.

Well then. I don’t know what to say.

The LitBlog Co-op announced the pick for ‘ReadThis!’ yesterday. It was a book I raved about when I read it, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Some people are claiming that since Atkinson won a Whitbread several years ago and has a larger audience in the UK, we haven’t fulfilled our mission. This controversy even made it into today’s Publisher’s Lunch. I did not vote in this selection, but I still stand behind what I percieve the purpose of the LitBlog Co-op to be, mainly to draw more attention to books. A healthy discussion on books is great, but I do bristle at the mention of being a sell-out. I loved Case Histories. That I know. Should another book have been our first selection? We’ll never know. We’re an evolving group with many voices. Each voice gets heard, there too. So expect to read about the other nominees and those that dissent with our pick. We invite everyone’s opinion of course. After all, you don’t like the book, you don’t have to read it. This was still a democracy last time I checked. Just quit with the sell-out crap.