The news seems bleaker than usual these days, observes Jessa Crispin a her newest column for PBS, “Bright Books for Dark Times.” Worse: “It’s not just that the news is bleak, it’s the powerlessness that everyone feels. When it’s a torrent of oil spilling into our oceans, deep underground, it’s not the kind of thing you can roll up your sleeves and solve yourself. It’s the same with most of the news: everything is just too big to do anything about yourself. And watching the politicians squabble is not exactly reassuring.”

If you’re a literary person like Crispin, you turn to your books on occasions of powerlessness — and from her library, she offers “a reading list, about humor in dark times, the strength of community, and people who, no matter how far gone things seemed, shook off apathy and got to work at tipping the scales back to something resembling balance.”

Among the books on her list:

“A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter’s Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial”
By H. L. Mencken

The axis of religion and science has become so sadly polarized that each side seems to believe that if they admit middle ground exists all is lost. So the “New Atheists” continue to insist that all belief in the divine is simply delusional, and fundamentalists want to alter our textbooks to omit basic scientific fact.

And while everyone is probably familiar with “Inherit the Wind,” the staid and slightly dreary films (it was remade — a lot) about the original fight for the teaching students evolution, less known is H.L. Mencken’s original account of the same trial, “A Religious Orgy in Tennessee.” It’s a wild story, and told in the usual rabblerousing Mencken style. It may be a battle we are still fighting, but it started with one teacher and one incomparable Clarence Darrow.

Matthew Honan holds A.J. Jacobs responsible for the rise of “stunt books” — “like when you read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica and wrote about it in your best-selling book The Know-It-All.” And then there was  Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically (”about your attempt to hew to every one of the Bible’s precepts”). And Jacobs is supposedly at work on a new one called The Healthiest Human Being in the World.

Now, says Honan, “everyone else is following your stunty lead: Dozens of scribes seem to have learned that writing about a wacky self-experiment is the key to a fat advance.”

Which gave Honan an idea. “I wanted to find out what this sudden rush of stunt books tells us about our country, our place in the world, the state of our humanity. And there was just one way to do so: with a stunt of my own. I would spend a week reading only this genre.”

In a hysterical column for Wired, he details his week’s reading:

Ed Dobson’s The Year of Living Like Jesus, an evangelical rip-off of Jacobs’ book. And Dobson isn’t the only copycat. Ammon Shea wrote Reading the OED after Jacobs’ Know-It-All was released. If anything, maybe I’m being too original. I resolve not to covet my neighbor’s donkey for the rest of the week. A few days later, I confront another stunt-book trope: burnout. It hits its apex when I read these sentences from Just Do It, Douglas Brown’s story of having sex with his wife every day for 101 days …

The kicker: Honan realizes that even his stunt isn’t original when he comes across a blog, “My Year of Everything, in which former MTV host Dave Holmes recounts his attempt to read a different stunt book every week for a year.”

For those who have always puzzled over heavy metal bands’ umlaut obsession, Michael Schaub at Bookslut points us to this illuminating Wikipedia link for your delectation:

A metal umlaut (also known as röck döts) is an umlaut mark that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of heavy metal bands, for example those of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead. Among English speakers, the use of umlaut marks and other diacritics with a blackletter style typeface is a form of foreign branding intended to give a band’s logo a Teutonic quality. It is a form of marketing that evokes stereotypes of boldness and strength commonly attributed to ancient north European peoples, such as the Vikings and Goths; author Reebee Garofalo has attributed its use to a desire for a “Gothic horror” feel. The metal umlaut is never referred to by the term diaeresis in this usage, nor is it generally intended to affect the pronunciation of the band’s name.

These decorative umlauts have been parodied in film and fiction. In the mockumentary film This Is Spın̈al Tap (spelled with an umlaut mark over the n), fictional rocker David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) says, “It’s like a pair of eyes. You’re looking at the umlaut, and it’s looking at you.”

Apparently Spin̈al Tap’s umlaut over the a consonant was really pushing the envelope for diacritics. But, there is precedent. This usage can be found, according to Wikipedia, “in the Jakaltek language of Guatemala and in some orthographies of Malagasy, a language of Madagascar.”

Which is, presumably, where the original band members where from.

… or, rather, are teeth.  British artist James Hopkins uses shelves and the things you put on them (like books! actual books!) to create his art.  Try doing that with an e-book!

Fans of Tao Lin probably know that his 2009 novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, while fiction, was inspired by the fact that he was indeed arrested for shoplifting from an American Apparel store — and also for shoplifting from the New York University bookstore. The latter, in fact, banned him from ever entering again — enacting a kind of double jeopardy, as Lin served his time on that conviction. And meanwhile, they continue to sell his books.

Two years further on, and the NYU bookstore has changed locations, expanded, and also attached itself to a cafe — the Think Coffee. Interestingly, Shoplifting is on prominent display in the front of the store. Last week, after going to the Think Coffee “10-20 times … to buy iced coffee,” Tao found himself in hot water there once again, although he had paid for what he had, this time.

As he details in a report for Gawker:

11:20 a.m. I was sitting alone at a table “idly ‘sipping’” Pellegrino while sometimes “napping” facedown on my arms, reading a novel manuscript, looking at my iPhone. I had a full iced coffee I was going to “chug” “soon.” After 70-90 minutes someone [touched me or said my name] and I removed my earphones. “Tao?” said a 55-year-old man. “Are you Tao?” ….

11:25 a.m. the 55-year-old man handcuffed my right wrist to something and I sat in a chair. I alternated between saying that I sort of forgot I was banned, that this was a new store, that their Think Coffee location was convenient. I focused on Think Coffee. I was honestly confused to what degree I “forgot” I was banned. Both the 55-year-old man and the Hispanic woman seemed familiar with my writing in a manner like they “agreed completely” with the “damning” review of Shoplifting from American Apparel on Bookslut….

11:50 a.m., after I hadn’t been spoken to for 2-4 minutes, the Hispanic woman said “are you still writing?” I was quiet then said “I’m always writing” in a depressed monotone, not looking in her direction, probably “accidentally” conveying something like “yes, I am stoically ‘enduring’ my life of ‘having no choice’ but to always be writing.”

Later the 55-year-old man said “what was your first book called?” while not looking at me, vaguely in the manner of a father-son “strained relationship” scene in a day-time drama.

I thought “first…um…” then, staring ahead, sort of unfocused my eyes and said “my first book is you are a little bit happier than i am” in an extreme monotone.

The 55-year-old man said “the one with ‘shoplifting’ in the title, what was that called?” while walking in a slow, goalless manner that seemed to be “leading him” out of the room.

I was quiet then said “Shoplifting from American Apparel” in a reluctant, vaguely embarrassed, somehow slightly accusatory manner. Immediately an NYU officer I hadn’t fully noticed said “oh, really” a bit loudly and walked quickly out of the room.

Lin was taken to jail. Once again, he found himself in the Tombs with a wild assortment of cell mates.

11:40 p.m. a 30-year-old African-American arrested for driving with a suspended license said his public attorney said the judge was offering him 7-days in jail or 3-years probation. The 30-year-old said “jail-time for a driving violation, I was like ‘no.’” People said things expressing injustice or disbelief. Someone said “who is this judge?”

After 2-4 minutes it was revealed that the 30-year-old had 16 license suspensions. People’s facial expressions seemed to change immediately. There was less “eye contact” in the cell. After a few seconds someone said “16 suspensions.” After 30-40 seconds someone asked what “probation” was exactly.

In the end, Lin received a sentence of one day of community service and a $125 fine. You’re safe to walk the streets again.

The offices of the Hachette Book Group on 237 Park Avenue in Manhattan are undergoing treatment after an attack of bedbugs, according to a Wall Street Journal report by Melanie Grayce West.

After days of after-hours treatment, the company closed early yesterday and is remaining closed all day today for “final treatment — which is more potent, and involves chemicals,” says a company spokeswoman.

The report notes that “The incident follows recent closures at other public spaces and offices, including a triage room at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, a Victoria’s Secret on the east side, the offices of Euro RSCG Worldwide downtown, an Abercrombie & Fitch at the South Street Seaport and the Hollister Epic store in SoHo.

Publisher of Kraken Opus and donor Sachin Tendulkar

… “luxury publisher” Kraken Opus, for a $75,000 book on Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar. Why so much, you ask? Well, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, “Kraken Opus mixed in a pint of Mr. Tendulkar’s blood with paper pulp to create the signature page for a book celebrating the renowned batsman’s career. The 10 limited-edition copies, which comes out in February, cost $75,000 each and have already sold out.”

Gross. On so many levels.

The Journal goes on to report that “Kraken is one of a handful of high-end publishing houses that are pushing the boundaries of extravagance and novelty in the luxury book market. Such books are being treated as investments and sometimes commanding prices usually reserved for original art works.”

Just when you thought such excess died with the market crash, we learn that a hedge fund manager has bought 20 copies of a $40,000 book about Ferraris published by Kraken. What’s more, he’s paying Kraken to store the books for him in a climate-controlled facility.

Art book publisher Taschen is an old hand at this game, reports the Journal, “Earlier this year, Taschen Books sold pieces of the moon with 12 copies of its massive photography book on the lunar landing (one of the lunar-rock editions sold for $112,500). Taschen previously published a $7,500, 800-page book on Muhammad Ali, “GOAT” (for “greatest of all time”), that comes with four signed photographs of the boxer and a sculpture by Jeff Koons.” On top of that, “this summer, Taschen is releasing a $50,000 collector’s edition celebrating the work of the installation artists Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude. The 754-page tome, designed by Christo, comes with a 1965 lithograph, and an original sketch depicting one of his installations.

The Journal points out, though, that the the re-sale market for these kinds of books has yet to come into its own: “Major auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s don’t sell such works at their book auctions, which include rare manuscripts and first editions. Bonhams does auction new limited-edition books—with mixed results, it says. Taschen’s books often turn up on eBay for several times the purchase price, but newer luxury publishers say it’s too early to gauge a secondary market for their books.”

Dedicated buyers don’t seem to mind. The Journal quotes architect and art collector Leo Daly, whose art collection includes works by Auguste Rodin and modernist Paul Klee, as saying, “I’ve collected almost everything they’ve produced.”

Filmmaker Brett Ratner, who described himself to the Journal as “a compulsive collector of Taschen’s books, noting that his Los Angeles home ‘looks like a Taschen store.’ He owns all of Taschen’s collector’s editions. He bought 10 copies of the Helmet Newton Sumo book when it first came out, gave several copies away and kept the rest. ‘It’s ridiculous,’ Mr. Ratner says of his Helmut Newton collection. ‘Why would I have more than one?’”

Good question.

Megan Halpern

Many of you fine readers get harassed by me daily — whether its through email or the occasional snail-mail galley letter.  Either way, that’s a lot of reading to do with all of the inbox-clogging letters I send your way, on top of the mail you must get from the hundreds of other book publicists.  But have no fear.  I’m about to tell you why you should read my notes above all others.

I write like Kurt Vonnegut.

And H.P. Lovecraft.

And apparently James Joyce.

Yes, that’s right.  And no, I’m not just bragging.  According to the website “I Write Like…,” which experienced an explosion in popularity yesterday after Galleycat plugged them on mediabistro, my galley letters are representative of all of the above writers.  Well, almost.  My Vonnegut-esque work?  That would be my summary of Tao Lin’s Richard Yates.  When writing on our upcoming Aurorarama, I spin it like Lovecraft.  But I save my Joycean prose for my discussion of T Cooper’s latest (and illustrated!) novella The Beaufort Diaries (PS–speaking of fame, watch the David Duchovny-voiced book trailer here).

So, please open my emails — I rest my case.

(Oh, and you can test your own writing here.)

Steig Larsson

It’s the inevitability of the American marketing machine.  A sequel is a good thing.  They will come.  When movies are made, they are made to make you keep coming back from the theater.  Even the bad ones (its true: Scream 4 is filming this summer).  A TV show could go on forever.  Yes, I still watch Grey’s Anatomy.  No, it is not any good any more.  Yes, it should have ended seasons ago.  Law and Order was on the air for 19 years!  Granted it was a decent show, but did it really need to last that long?  Every once in a while I watch a nice, contained 2 season series from the BBC and I think to myself, “yes, I guess I want more, but damn was that satisfying! Why don’t we end things here?”

And yes, we do it in books too.  The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, the Stooki Stackhouse novels.  And then every once in a while, along comes a nice contained three book series that earns critical acclaim and then ends.  OH WAIT.

After a relatively satisfying conclusion following a significant wait for the third book in Steig Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander series, I thought it was over.  I wasn’t relieved, but it had wrapped up nicely and it was nice while it lasted and I moved on.  Read some nice nonfiction, a fabulous debut by Tom Rachman, and picked up some used books at the Strand.  And then, THIS headline, last week, in the Times:

Unpublished Manuscripts by Stieg Larsson Are Found

Followed by rabid internet discussion, rumor-mongering, unconstrained excitement and anticipation, etc.  I stayed away from it all, waiting for it to blow over, hoping the publishing industry wouldn’t ruin this one  good thing that we had going and had properly concluded…

And then, yesterday afternoon, this:

A Few Clues About Unfinished Larsson Book

Oh god its true!  And I don’t know if I’m happy about it.  Of course its exciting to dig up work from a dead writer!  I’m sure everyone would be thrilled if someone stumbled across a new book from Wilde, or Hemingway, or whoever! And it is a significant chunk: supposedly 320 pages out of a total of 440, and only a month from its planned completion.  Some are saying it takes place in Canada, some are saying its missing not the beginning or the end, but the middle.  Who knows.  Regardless, aren’t we satisfied as it is?  (I won’t give away the ending of the book proving my satisfaction, because I’m not a fan of spoilers, but hell - I’m satisfied!)

Eva Gabrielsson, who is rumored to be in possession of the book, will not disclose any information or the book itself to the public.  I knew I liked her!  So I say, “Go Eva!  Keep it to yourself!”  And leave me be with my trilogy.  No more sequels please.

“Minotaurs The New Vampires,” says a story in The Onion:

In a desperate effort to find a trendy new fantasy subgenre to succeed the ebbing vampire craze, Razorbill Books executive Graham Childress decided this week to throw all his professional weight behind a new series of novels featuring minotaurs, the bull-headed, human-bodied creatures of ancient Greek mythology.

“Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about minotaurs,” Childress said at a publishing conference, “Plus, labyrinths are really hot right now.”

According to The Onion, the book is the first in a “planned trilogy about a bad-boy minotaur who transfers to a new high school and eventually falls for the one girl who can see the pain and sensitivity behind his brooding exterior.”

It is scheduled to be released “on Dec. 14, the same date three rival publishers will release novels featuring a bad-boy mummy, a bad-boy cyclops, and a bad-boy Mayan vision serpent.”

While some publishers fear they have already scraped the bottom of the monster barrel, Quirk Books, the people who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, continues undaunted, now creating monster mash-ups out of bad puns. Just out: Android Karenina. Coming soon: Meowmorphosis.

When will it end, oh Lord, when will it end?