R.I.P. John Updike and the WaPo Book World

Today there are two big stories circulating the lit-blog universe: John Updike is dead, and so is, according to rumor, the Washington Post Book World.

We're having some really bad weather up here in the northeast, so Birnbaum's long-awaited talk with Lawrence Weschler has also been killed.

However, Birnbaum recommends you check out Weschler's chat with author Kyle Minor in The Rumpus.

Also, an article on self-publishing from the NY Times begins by forecasting of the death of sustainable readership: "The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them."

That could already be true about blogs.

KAKUTANI: From Books, New President Found Voice

I've been slowly reading the two books written by Barack Obama (Dreams from my Father and The Audacity of Hope) for the past year or so, impressed by the depth of his experience and thinking. In a recent NY Times article, Michiko Kakutani discusses how reading shaped Obama's life and how the new president discovered that "with the right words everything could change -- South Africa, the lives of ghetto kids just a few miles away, my own tenuous place in the world."

You can say (or should I say, "read") that again.

Christian Bauman's Eternal Playlist

Novelist Christian Bauman, author of In Hoboken (and Identity Theory contributing editor), makes an appearance on the NY Times book blog today as part of its "Living with Music" feature.

As a former musician/songwriter/folksinger whose latest novel depicts the life of struggling young Jersey musicians, Bauman offers a playlist of acoustic artists for whom he opened in the '90s, including "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" by Pete Seeger and "The Midnight Special" by Odetta.

In addition to In Hoboken, Bauman's novels include Voodoo Lounge and The Ice Beneath You.

For more playlists and other insights on the writing and folk music, visit his blog at christianbauman.com.

Heaven-Sent Friends, Parisians, Countrymen

My fellow Cedarville (Ohio) High School graduate, J. Saunders Elmore, will be releasing his debut novel, The Amateur American, this summer. Crown is publishing the book, which apparently a mystery/thriller about "a young American expatriate in France who is drawn into a web of violent political intrigue, corruption and murder when he takes a job translating for a shadowy powerbroker."

The NY-based production company Likely Story (Synecdoche, NY) recently picked up the film rights to Elmore's novel.

Also, Katy Lederer, a fellow literary/poker enthusiast whom I interviewed here back in 2005 (and whose poetry appeared on Identity Theory a couple of years ago...and who helped me meet my current girlfriend...) is still touring for her new poetry collection, The Heaven-Sent Leaf. Read this very nice write-up in The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town."