It was recently brought to our attention that we, unlike some, do not aspire to be Tolstoy. For a lot of reasons, we took this as a compliment. Not that we don’t adore Russian literary giants — we do. But remember, too much Tolstoy causes the gout. When our poor, put-upon bookclub encountered our first choice — The Brothers Karamazov — there were groans (possibly because there are only so many wines that go with Russian literature). They never got our excitement; possibly we shouldn’t attempt to do the Grand Inquisitor voice. They never got that Dostoevsky was funny. Really

We received a complaint about our content: apparently some of our subject matter is too obscure. Books and publishers and writing. . .all of this seems a little foreign to at least one reader. Because we take constructive criticism seriously, we are going to strive for more accessible subject matter. We are going to start discussing maps. Everyone likes maps. Randy Cohen has decided to map literary New York (didn’t someone just do this in Los Angeles as well?). Not where authors of note have lived, but the places their characters spend time. He admits he needs help (see the

Are you tagging yet? It’s all the rage, so if you aren’t now, you will be soon. The good news is that tagging can be done from the privacy of your home. Nobody needs to know what you’re doing, unless you choose to share. Tagging, basically, is a method for adding keywords to photos, links, or information. You can then share your tagged information (Flickr is a good example of this) or use tags to manage bookmarks you’re saving for research purposes (our favorite thing). For all of us who have bookmarked something only to wonder “what’s that?” the next

The hallmark of a good friend is her ability to intuit, across thousands of miles and a couple of time zones, that you’re going to wake up with a nasty sinus headache. She then takes it upon herself to post something on your blog in your stead. We thank Jill for picking up our slack this morning. She has earned her Mindreader badge. She says she has more to say this week (and while we shouldn’t encourage avoidance, we do), so will be posting a few more items. As always, she’s nice, we’re cranky.

We were intrigued enough by this statement. . . Thomas Macaulay told us copyright law is a tax on readers for the benefit of writers, a tax that shouldn’t last a day longer than necessary. What do we do? We extend the copyright term repeatedly on both sides of the Atlantic. The US goes from fourteen years to the author’s life plus seventy years. We extend protection retrospectively to dead authors, perhaps in the hope they will write from their tombs. . . .that we made one of our infrequent forays into the world of research. Let us assure you