Bookish links 30 Nov: endlessly untidy novels, resurrecting old books, Moby Dick beer more!

RIASS stuff:

Little to redeem it: DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little'Words cant express how much I loathed this book. But I did try. Rating:

'We have freedom to look at what all readers want' ' an interview with Kate Cuthbert, editor at Harlequin's Escape Publishing

Reading habits and prejudices and Joe Queenan's One for the Books'In which I realise that I'll only get through about another 11,400 books before I die. Turning off the internet right now. Rating:

On narrative voice in YA and Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos'A startling, sometimes wonderful YA that strives for something a little different.

Other bookish stuff:

Are you a hipster? Goodreads has a flowchart to help you figure it out.

Stephen Kings'Under the Dome will be televised in a 13-episode series.'Still dying to read this one.

A Whale of an Ale: a Moby Dick-infused beer. Yes, really.

Elizabeth Lhuede, the powerhouse behind the Australian Women Writers 2012 reading challenge, has been featured on the Huffington Post'At the beginning of the year, inspired by an online stoush over gender bias involving popular fiction author Tara Moss and a literary reviewer, I decided not to leave it to chance. Along with a group of book bloggers, we established the'Australian Women Writers Challenge, pledging to review books by Australian women throughout 2012. Over 370 signed up and to date weve generated 1250 reviews, embracing more than 480 authorsThe reviews havent all been of literary fiction. They cover nonfiction and poetry, as well as genres that rarely, if ever, get reviewed by traditional media such as horror, romance and erotica.'(you can also read my interview with Elizabeth on the slightly more humble but still excellent Australian Women Online over here')

Mythological books are still selling strong in India

More digital-only imprints: this time its Random House'(also, why is the New Adult imprint called Flirt?)

Lines from The Princess Bride that double as comments in a creative writing workshop''I think that's about the worst thing I've ever heard.'How marvellous.'

In praise of novels without neat conclusions'Those novels without end, steeped in ambiguity, those novels stay with us. We cant shake them off, no matter how hard we try. They haunt us, mock us, they hang around waiting for us in the shadows, they disturb our working days, disrupt our sleep, torment us, force us to participate on their own terms. Much like real life does, novels without endings reveal to us the ambiguity that is crucial to our own desire to simply find out things for ourselves. Oh, how I want to hug this article. (See also my thoughts on Charles Dickens unfinished'Edwin Drood)

An interview with the wonderful Elizabeth Knox, whose'Dreamhunter I loved and whose'The Vintners Luck I plan to get to soon.'I've always been trying to write literature ' though I'm not sure that's something any kiwi writer is allowed to admit. Trying honestly, doggedly, vainly, bravely, wrong-headedly ' whatever. Possibly by choosing to write speculative fiction in at least two thirds of my work I was taking a tricky route. After all literary fiction as a genre ' and it is a genre ' does have a higher strike-rate for literature. But at a formative time in my life the books (and films) that talked most deeply to me were non-realist, so that is what I ended up writing.'I'll never be able to know whether I've succeeded in my aims, since the most convincing description of what constitutes literature is Literature is what lasts.

On the new Simon & Schuster self-publishing imprint bizzo''This seems like a way for a traditional publisher to cash in on the changing landscape of the publishing world. In theory, that isn't a bad business practice. Adapt or die, as Darwin says. But this isn't about developing a longer beak to snatch a worm. This is about making art, making literature, and publishing thoughts. There's something to be said about adapting in a smart, reasonable fashion. Right now, a good editorial assessment might cost you $2,000 alone. A writer might be better off spending the cash on that, making the book as good as it can possibly be, and then going from there.

Image from the FlickR commons

More notable books of 2012'Gosh, Ive only read about three or four of these (with a few more on the TBR. Also, Juliana Baggotts'Pure? Really?)

A day in the life of a childrens book editor'An editor's day is always busy. We attend many meetings and have lots of paperwork to complete. The days when we can just sit with a manuscript and edit are few and far between, but when those days occur it makes all the other work worth it.

An authors cut: resurrecting an old novel'The new cutis better for sure than the old. The stuff that's gone' well, I'm amazed a lot of it got the green light from my editor. Amazed that I was paid money for it. For instance, the original version of the ending few chapters included several muddled 'I heard about X from Y' joining-the-dots remarks where X and Y had changed between drafts 2and 3and so the text contradicted itselfbut no one ever noticed.'There's none of that in the new edition. At least, there'd better not be.'Oh, yeah, and the actual writing is better, characterisation's more focused, events are less shoddy, the drama's more contained, and all that.

On open access and academic publishers'It does not take a huge intellectual leap to see how all of these activities benefit science and research.'It ishard to imagine how anyone with an internet connection could do this with the speed, efficiency and added value with which publishers operate, while still maintaining the integrity of the scientific record. In short, all of the activities outlined here cannot be done without the large investments in people and technology that we make via the fees that we charge.

Behind the scenes at Katherine Tegen books: a brainstorming session