an interesting thing

What do you think about Goodreads? What do you think about rating books based on stars? What do you use Goodreads for, if you use it? How do you rate books in this kind of forum? Is it wrong to give a bad rating to a book without saying why? Is their ‘three star’ rating equating to ‘liked it’ apt? Is it scary that the Book of Mormon is #3 on their user-populated list of Best Books Ever? What else?

Lincoln Michel of The Faster Times and Gigantic tipped me off to two interviews of probable high-interest to Giant readers, one from each publication. Over at FT, they’ve reprinted Michael Kimball’s conversation with Blake Butler from Unsaid #4. And over at the newly re-designed Gigantic website, Lincoln himself has interviewed Clancy Martin. That second one gets pretty epic, so make sure your boss isn’t around and then get ready to dig your heels in.

RT @featherproof: Have you read Amelia Gray’s AM/PM? Cleverest review on Powells.com or Amazon.com in the next 48 hours wins the featherproof novel of your choice! You have 48 hours from now, 9/22, 4pm, to do it. So do it!

Merlin Mann, hero, rewrites the beginning of Absalom, Absalom! as Dan Brown.

failbetter is having a tenth anniversary novella contest

The absolutely brilliant Heather McHugh has won a MacArthur Grant. (Deborah Eisenberg and Edwidge Danticat also won, but Heather is a favorite of mine.)

Nobody gets Bradbury like Stephen Colbert.

Issue No. 3 of Fou is out — beautiful design.

i enjoyed reading this piece of writing by bradley sands.  i also enjoyed the tips for a sexier stomach on the side of the page.  reading the piece of writing by bradley sands and then learning how to get a sexier stomach, really, felt like two consecutive wins.