Your attention please

Saturday marked the opening of the first, and hopefully last, Sarah Palin Memorial Banned Books Week. Look here for an event near you!

American Gore-ing

Yesterday's Guardian carries an interview with octogenarian author Gore Vidal. If this isn't excessive understatement he is a bit cynical about the future of America. Key quote:

"The country is finished. It's all over. But you know, with a new republic like this, if you missed being here at the beginning, the next best thing is to be here at the end."

So Irvine, how's the anger management working out for you?

Not so well apparently. Today's Guardian features an interview with Scottish author Irvine Welsh. I provide the following taster for your amusement only:

"I recently had a wee confrontation in Miami Beach. Hands-up time: I detest cyclists who use the pavement. Obviously, I understand how dangerous the roads are in medieval UK cities, and if people are respectful I'll tolerate it. But I will cheerfully admit to getting fucking heart-sick at (usually stupid, spoiled, rich) cunts who cycle down the sidewalks in the USA when America is all big, straight roads and careful drivers. Not only are the poncey wankers too shit-scared to drive on the road, they often expect you to get out of the way.

"A few weeks ago some wankstain pedalled towards me at speed, ringing his stupid wee bell. This had happened before but this time I wasn't for standing aside. In fact, my intent was to step back at the last minute, and lash out with the anticipation of separating him from his bike. Fortunately for us both, he was as cowardly in interpersonal encounters as he was in the face of the traffic and braked and swerved at the last minute, almost coming off over the handlebars. As I smiled in satisfied vindication, he regarded me in a bemused and irate manner. I cheerfully told him that if he'd made any contact with me I'd have dragged both him and his crappy fucking bike into the traffic. He retorted that I had anger management issues - they actually say things like that in Miami Beach, which kind of wants to be in California. Nonsense.

"Nevertheless, and this is another reason why the expression of public, interpersonal rage is dodgy, I felt guilt creep in. The guy was obviously scared. He wasn't the demon I had made him out to be, just a stupid youngish chap caught up in his own thoughts and selfishness. He'd go home feeling crap, debased, and a little humiliated. I fought the urge to patronise him with some dreadful speech about how that might make him think twice before cycling on the sidewalk. Further up the road, it struck me that he could have had a gun."

Isn't this rather missing the point?

Allow me to preface this by I saying I love books. I hope that books exist forever. Nothing can, for me at least, the unadulterated joy of roaming through a truly first class bookshop. (Make a note: must get to Foyles!)

Irrespective of all of that I think that the German publisher Bertelsmann's planto release a book based on Wikepedia is patently absurd!

Attention: fans of The Fall

This week the Guardian is featuring extracts from Mark E. Smith's newly released autobiography Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. Definitely a must read.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"

A small college in Oregon has found in its archives what is believed to be the earliest recording of Alan Ginsburg reading "Howl". Very cool! The recording will be posted on Reed College's website this coming Friday.

"Bush Is Too Horrendous to Be Forgotten"

For those of you who are interested Der Spiegel currently has an excellent interview with Philip Roth.

The Storyteller

Today's Guardian features a brief interview with the 95 year old Studs Terkel. The following is first bit:

About 25 years ago, Studs Terkel was waiting for a number 146 bus alongside two well-groomed business types. "This was before the term yuppie was used," he explains. "But that was what they were. He was in Brooks Brothers and Gucci shoes and carrying the Wall Street Journal under his arm. She was a looker. I mean stunning - Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus and carrying Vanity Fair."

Terkel, who is 95, has long been a Chicago icon, every bit as accessible and integral to the cultural life of the Windy City as Susan Sontag was to New York. He had shared the bus stop with this couple for several mornings but they had always failed to acknowledge him. "It hurts my ego," he quips. "But this morning the bus was late and I thought, this is my chance." The rest of the story is his.

"I say, 'Labour Day is coming up.' Well, it was the wrong thing to say. He looks toward me with a look of such contempt it's like Noel Coward has just spotted a bug on his collar. He says, 'We despise unions.' I thought, oooooh. The bus is still late. I've got a winner here. Suddenly I'm the ancient mariner and I fix him with my glittering eye. 'How many hours a day do you work?' I ask. He says, 'Eight.' 'How comes you don't work 18 hours a day like your great-great-grandfather did? You know why? Because four guys got hanged in Chicago in 1886 fighting for the eight-hour day ... For you.'

"Well, he was scared and nervous and the bus was still late. I've got this guy pinned up against the mailbox. He couldn't get away. 'How many days a week do you work?' I went on. Well, then the bus came and I never saw them again. But I think that every workday morning she was looking from the 15th floor of their apartment block to see if that mad man was still there."

America could have used a few dozen more of the likes of him.

The occasion of the interview is that Mr. Terkel has a new book out entitled Touch and Go.

Funny, they never objected to CANDY packaged like cigarettes

British publisher Tank faces the threat of a law suit from the heavyweights at British American Tobacco over their series of classic books designed to look like cigarette packets. BAT is claiming that the resemblance to the Lucky Strike pack somehow diminishes the value of their brand. I guess smokers that might be capable of thought are considered dangerous.

Today in infamy - book burners edition

On this date in 1933 Judge John M. Woolsey ruled that James Joyce's crowning work, the masterpiece that is Ulysses was not obscene and could be published in the United States.

The nutters were out in force

Clearly Tom Cruise and Ann Coulter have stayed up nights stuffing the ballot boxes as six of the top ten novels, as voted for by ordinary and completely normal people in a public Random House poll, are written by either L. Ron Hubbard or Ayn Rand.

More gas on the fire

Panic stricken right wing Christian parents have been lobbying for the banning of JK Rowling's Harry Potter books from libraries almost from the beginning because of their dark and satanic nature. Now they will have more cause for concern as we learn that Dumbledore is gay. Cue the outrage!