Conversations About Books

A Roundup of Literary Blogs

By Allen M. Jones, 4-08-05

The rumble in today’s literary blog community seems to be focusing on The LitBlog Co-Op, “Uniting the leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace.� A consortium of twenty or so blogs, the site asks the question, “What would happen if a bunch of your favorite literary blogs got together four times a year and picked a book from obscurity, an overlooked literary gem that we'd get behind as a group and bring to your attention, flogging it ceaselessly both here and on our respective individual blogs?� On May 15, they’re going to be announcing their first “Read This!� selection. (As terrific as this idea is, you have to wonder about the list of participating sites and how they were chosen. One of my own favorites, Bookslut, is conspicuously absent.)

Over on Conversational Reading, there’s an ongoing dialogue regarding a piece earlier posted at New West, “A Review of the Reviewers’ Reviewers.� A few scathing remarks, a few constructive criticisms. The reviewer of the reviewers’ reviewers is being reviewed. Gotta love the internet.

Beatrice starts with a conversation between Pankaj Mishra and Paul Elie. Scroll down a bit past obituaries for Frank Conroy and Saul Bellow, and there’s a great description of a combined Foer / Vollman reading at the 92nd St. Y.

The Literary Saloon posts notice of a new Milan Kundera novel, along with links to four early reviews. Given that the book Le Rideau is published to date only in French, somebody at the Saloon deserves a solid round of applause for keeping their heads up. Also, posted yesterday, the Saloon corrals together a fine list of links to obituaries and commentaries on Saul Bellow.

The Reading Experience links to and discusses David Milofsky’s article for the Denver Post on creative writing programs while Bookninja links to a German case of plagiarism. (Quote of the week: “At first I started thinking, ‘This is uncanny. This is the kind of stuff I could have written.’ After reading a couple of hundred pages it dawned on me that I had in fact written it.�)

Booklust posts a fantastic cartoon, the caption of which includes the words “warranty� and “thong.�

Bookslut leads with a profile-link of Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead, and follows it up with a Clarion-Ledger piece on Mississippi literature (in the context of Larry Brown’s passing).

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.