THE ANTE-BOOK: Founder of New York Review of Books has a vision of the future - a huge Web-based consortium, open to all publishers - old and new, large and small - that would create an annotated index of all books in print. Wired 11/30/99

JOIN THE CLUB: Newspapers have discovered the book club. Several newspapers have started book clubs, and book retailers are rejoicing. Publishers Weekly 11/30/99

TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: French publisher has found a way to mine her country's intellectual elite and her countrymen's passion for ideas and produce a formula for commercial success. Financial Times 11/26/99

FAVORITE POEM PROJECT: Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky's crusade to unleash the power of poetry. A conversation about collaboration, creative writing programs and the religion of art. Feed 11/23/99

THE "VERY DEFINITION OF CANADIAN LITERATURE" Al Purdy is the rarest of the rare - a poet who actually makes a living being a poet - indeed, is celebrated for it. CBC 11/23/99

POOR RELATION: The Laura Ingalls Wilder Library has a leaky roof. Inside the employees shiver in the cold. Now the Missouri library has gone to court battling heirs and publishers to get a piece of its namesake's estate, which it says it was promised. New York Times 11/23/99 (one time registration required)

GLITTER MEETS LITER-ature at Wednesday night's National Book Awards. The winners: Ha Jin in fiction for "Waiting," John W. Dower in nonfiction for "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II," Ai in poetry for "Vice: New and Selected Poems" and Kimberly Willis Holt in young people's literature for "When Zachary Beaver Came to Town." Winners aside, it was a star-studded evening. Washington Post 11/18/99
     AND: New York Times account (one-time registration required)
     AND: Publisher's Weekly account

NEXT CHAPTER: Canadian Government investigates practices of book super-retailer. Declines full inquiry but says some of Chapters'  practices are concerning. Toronto Globe and Mail 11/18/99

NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS TONIGHT: Steve Martin hosts, Oprah Winfrey to get honorary prize. The writers? There's "little glamour among the actual nominees this year." (AP) Cleveland Plain Dealer 11/17/99

ITALIAN PARADOX: No major publishing nation boasts more world-class publishers per capita, more enticing book design or lower list prices. So why do Italians buy so few books? Publisher's Weekly 11/16/99

THE INEVITABLE FUTURE OF THE BOOK BUSINESS: International panel at Frankfurt Fair discusses the future of publishing. A bookless book industry? E-books, publishing on demand and book chips. Publisher's Weekly 11/15/99 

CANADA'S GOVERNOR GENERAL LITERARY AWARDS ANNOUNCED: Matt Cohen's "Elizabeth and After" wins English prize. The French language fiction prize goes to Lise Tremblay for "La Danse juive." CBC 11/16/99

E-PROJECT: New Orleans writer e-mails off her e-book to production company, negotiates e-deal for a movie project. Production begins in January. Wired 11/16/99 

A THOUSAND LINES OF POETRY: Simon Armitage has been appointed official "Poet of the Millennium Dome." He'll compose a 1000-word poem for England's millennial project. London Times 11/15/99 

AT THE RAW EDGE OF LIFE: An assessment of double-Booker novelist J.M. Coetzee's work. Boston Globe 11/14/99

IF THEY CAN BEAT US AT CHESS... New fiction-writing computer software spits out stories in seconds. Most people wouldn't be able to tell it was a machine, says the software designer. "This story does not fit my idea of what a computer would write like," he says. "It breaks a lot of rules." 
New York Times 11/11/99 (Registration required for access)

LIKE "LOOSE CHANGE FROM A TORN POCKET": More highly-placed editors and publishers are switching teams and becoming literary agents. Does the world really need more literary agents? 
New York Times 11/11/99 (Registration required for access)

BEGGING FOR REVIEW: Author buys tiny front-page ads in the New York Times to try and goad reviewer Michiko Kakutani into paying attention to his book.
 Salon 11/11/99

BAD YEAR FOR BIOGRAPHY: Bring out the life support. The biography as a genre is having a rough time. Is it just a string of bad luck or are serious literary changes in the works? Philadelphia Inquirer 11/11/99

RIGHT WRITE: Here's a parody of the New York Times' often overly-serious column of writers writing what it means to write right. Salon 11/9/99

E-READING just got  a big step closer. Microsoft and Donnelley (the largest printer of US books) team up to make e-publishing easy for publishers. Publishers Weekly 11/9/99

DOES NATURE ABHOR A CURSOR AT REST? The drive to write, says Richard Ford, is powerful for writers. Sometimes, though, it works better if you don't. New York Times 11/8/99 (registration required for access)

"SOBER, SEARING AND CYNICAL": A review of J.M Coetzee's "Disgrace," which won the Booker Prize last week. Salon 11/5/99

"MONSTROUSLY LONG, ECCENTRICALLY STRUCTURED AND HIGHLY SELF-INDULGENT": Nonetheless, Simon Schama's new Rembrandt biography is "fascinating and admirable." London Telegraph 11/4/99

HARDWARE'S HOT: Bonnie Burnard has won the Giller, Canada's top literary prize with her story of a hardware store owner and his family. CBC 11/4/99
     ALSO: Jean Echenoz wins France's top literary prize CBC 11/4/99

THE TROUBLE AT TALK: Turmoil at new magazine has staffers coming and going. Insiders dish the dirt. Village Voice 11/3/99

WHY IS IT THE SERIOUS NOVELS THAT ALWAYS WIN? Dissecting the thinking behind this year's Booker Prize for literature. London Telegraph 11/3/99

PUBLISHERS POURING MONEY into e-startups. Publisher's Weekly 11/2/99

VALUE OF DISCREDITED BUSH BIO soars on internet auction sites as publisher withdraws book. "Beanie Babies in hardback," one Borders manager calls it. Baltimore Sun 11/2/99
     AND: Editor at St. Martin's Press who quit after Bush debacle is hired for Talk Magazine. Publisher's Weekly 11/2/99

THE BUSH BOOK: Critic tries to work up a good mad about St. Martin's Press pulling George W bio last week, but finds he can't. It's business as usual in the publishing world. Washington Post 11/1/99
   AND: How the Bush book incident went down. New York Observer 11/1/99