Round-up. Or considering these items, maybe "Wind-down" would be better

Romance novels represent one-fourth of all popular fiction sold, some 6,000 new titles per year. But sales are flat, the readership is aging and even mighty Harlequin laid off people last year. Is the multi-cultural romance novel an answer?

Lovely. Library books will now have advertising inserts in them. At least in England. Here, we'll settle for Homeland Security tracking devices.

That favorite author? The one who cranks out a new novel every year? The one whose brand-new novel you just bought? She or he may be dead. LIke Ian Fleming. Or Robert Ludlum. And especially V. C. Andrews.

Academics discussing bad-boy French novelist Michel Houellebecq: The fundamental difference between the Marquis de Sade and Houellebecq, "comes down to 1968, it would seem. How can anyone have an orgasm after May 1968?"
The Elegant Variation has the intermittently hilarious, translated transcript.

November 9, 2007 6:02 AM | Permalink

Categories:

THE REVIEWS:

Pat Barker, Frankenstein, Cass Sunstein on the internet, Samuel Johnson, Thrillers, Denis Johnson, Alan Furst, Caryl Phillips, Richard Flanagan, George Saunders, Michael Harvey, Larry McMurtry, Harry Potter and more ...

ESSAY:

Big D between the sheets -- Dallas in fiction

ESSAY:

Reviewing the state of reviewing

ESSAY:

9/11 as a novel: Why?

ESSAY:

How can critics say the things they do? And why does anyone pay attention? It's the issue of authority.

The disappearing book pages:

Papers are cutting book coverage for little reason

Thrillers and Lists:

Noir favorites, who makes the cut and why