E-readers compared

Personally, I use the iPad because I want to do more than read, but it does make a great bookreader. The NY Times looks at the major players.

What the iPad can't do

The New York Review of Books pins it down: you can't annotate every page like you can with a book on paper. You can't turn it into your own. For students, and plenty of others, that might be a problem.

On the madness of collecting first editions

This article is a bit British, but fun. "Valuable copies are the ones nobody has read. It is like taking your shoes off when it rains. Nothing spoils a book like reading it." More...

Writers interview themselves

Or, more to the point, ask themselves questions the journalists don't, in The Guardian. Some contributors are Ian Rankin and Nadine Gordimer. Fun stuff.

Summer reading

MotherJones.com gives us suggestions from a dozen literary lights.

Interview with Janet Evanovich

The Big Thrill interviews the creator of Stephanie Plum.

Crime writers discuss their creations

This anthology from Otto Penzler looks especially interesting.

The Edgar Award-winning anthology The Lineup collects almost two dozen essays and stories by some of the crime and thriller genres' brightest lights on the origins of their best-known characters. Most are anecdotal, detailing the strange circumstances, coincidences, and influences that came together to bring a character to life. Some get more creative; for instance, Robert Crais actually interviews his characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. More...