Payola: Not Just for Music Anymore...

Via Daniel Gross's essay in Slate today on the current controversy over payola 2.0 comes this article on the paid placement of books in assorted retail locations. While I'd assumed that this was the case, I hadn't had it confirmed until now.

One more reason to dig my current home, though: "In New York City, the percentage [of the books on front-of-store tables] is less because store clerks have traditionally retained more autonomy to promote books they personally like and think will sell well."

Getting Multidisciplinary

Last week, I saw Miranda July's fantastic Me and You and Everyone We Know. It's damn good -- the sort of low-key, character-driven drama that I find myself drawn to more and more.

Admittedly, it's a bit of a stretch to tie this in with a blog on books -- except that Ms, July has also recently released a book via Cloverfield Press.

The new issue of Filmmaker also features an interview of Ms. July conducted by one Rick Moody. Which, I'll be honest, is the sort of thing I eat up like candy.

.....the smartest free download you'll make this year? Maybe.

Kelly Link's Stranger Things Happen is now available as a free download. And if you haven't read this collection, you really should. I spend a lot of time ranting to whoever will listen about music wherein the old is made new. Kelly Link's writing does the same thing: it's comfortably familiar and terrifyingly jarring all at once. And she has a new collection out as well.

a brief observation

If Jonathan Lethem were to write a book in the 33 1/3 series, I think this site would explode.

"...sometimes I don’t actually know what’s going on"

I just finished David Peace's GB84. To use the phrase "harrowing" doesn't do the book justice; it's unrelentingly brutal, beyond tragic, and infuriating. Peace's sparse technique is often dizzying; via this BBC interview, it's interesting to learn that that disorientation extends to the authorial side of things.

Still more 33.3 goodness...

Here: an interview of series editor David Barker. Its author is good people indeed.