News Around the Net

Sorry for the shortness this week, but if I see one more list of best books of the year or the decade or the month or the day, I'm going to lose it. Lose it!

With all the trending toward the internet, McSweeney's proves that print is not dead. It's just a little uncomfortable to read in the bathtub. But it doesn't get you electrocuted!

A New Jersey man returned his Spanish to English dictionary to the Jersey City library. It was 54 years late. Luckily his $1,750 fine (!) was forgiven by the library's new amnesty policy, started as a way to encourage "fugitive bibliophiles" to bring their books back. Yes, fugitives.

Shakespeare characters want things for Christmas too. Except Hamlet. He doesn't want anything.

Here's a snow in literature quiz. Somehow, I managed to get 8 of 14. I knew reading The Golden Compass would come in handy someday!

Is this the future of magazine publishing? If everyone was rich, then maybe it would be. What's really wrong with magazine publishing anyway? How lazy are we going to get?

The 2009 United States Artists fellowships have been awarded. Among the writers getting a $50,000 unrestricted grant (spend it on the most awesome vacation ever, if you want) is Sapphire, the writer of the novel which the new Oprah-endorsed movie Precious is based upon.

What The Paris Review and swimsuit models have in common.