Author name: Booksquare

Editor Michael Seidman clarifies literary fiction. Phew. Okay, perhaps he doesn’t answer the question (we, once again, refer back to our original thesis). But he offers another look at the subject. For every book published, a genre (call it a slot) is required. Marketing and all that. Sometimes you slide into your round hole without discernible friction, sometimes you simply don’t fit. We’d draw a conclusion here, but after a lifetime of the latter, we’d rather not. Occasional Thoughts from the Editorial Side More Summer Reading (thanks for the above link)

It comes as somewhat of a relief to us that sex was invented after our conception. The implications otherwise make the coffee curdle in our stomach. To celebrate the reissue of Sex and the Office (another topic that, in the past, would have adversely affected our enjoyment of our morning beverage…but it was that kind of office), MediaBistro interviews Helen Gurley Brown. While we’re not sure about all the advice contained in the book, we do regret not keeping a bottle of Scotch in our desk drawer. And, we suppose, we have a twinge of regret for taking short lunches.

Or something like that. We have long compared literary fiction to pornography — something you know when you see it. Mass market is easy to identify as we spend a lot of time in our grocery store. Sometimes we puzzle over the shelves of books at Vroman’s — which are literary, which are not, and which are just plain bad wrapped up in trade paperback prices? And what happens when literary fiction becomes (gasp!) popular fiction? Or happens to be sold in mass market format? Genre slippage? There is an inherent snobbery in the genre (we do so love snobbery

We think maybe someone said to Robert McCrum, “We gotta get us some of that blogging story.” And McCrum, perhaps facing a deadline and the lure of a good book, did the lazy thing. Fine. He does realize that blogs didn’t spring up last month, fully grown. And he is fully aware that the Internet has always offered innovative ways for authors to publish their work. There’s simply a lack of originality to this story…when we think of high profile blogs, we don’t think of I have a Diary (but, alas, the New Yorker does…McCrum apparently used their article as