From "My Own Private Library," a professor's rumination on book collecting in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

A couple years ago a cartoon from The New Yorker depicted a man in a book-lined study sipping a martini and talking to a woman in a black party dress. The caption: "These books represent the person I once aspired to be."

Anyone who collects old books knows that most of what we call "literature" is never read. Large collections of books are fetish objects rather than authentic scholarly resources. I'm like all those architecture students who feel compelled to buy a pair of expensive and uncomfortable Barcelona chairs. I have not yet given up on my professorial aspirations, and each new book is a small investment in that future, which, with any luck, could last another 40 years.

At bottom, I suspect I am a scholar because I am a bibliophile rather than the other way around.

• Was Shakespeare an adherent of Sufism?

  ["Respected academic" Dr Martin] Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes, depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.
  
  ... [Lings] argues that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear, is like the Sufi's search for truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents.

• On the subject of diabolic agents: "Biba Caggiano is a Sacramento-based chef who's authored a number of cookbooks," writes blogger Sarah Weinman. "The problem is, her agent, the now MIA Maureen Lasher, decided to negotiate six-figure advance deals for two more books--without telling Caggiano of this fact. Now the chef's suing her agent for the missing money."
  
  
• Who will attend the National Book Award ceremony on behalf of the 9/11 report?, PW (sub. req'd) asks.

  At first glance, the commission's whole premise of anonymous collaboration wouldn't seem to fit so well with the NBA's culture of giving books personalities and faces. To that, and to the question of whether the group at the podium would include executive director Philip Zelikow, chair Thomas Kean or vice chair Lee Hamilton, Brockett acknowledged, "It's a very extraordinary collective effort, but you can't have a hundred people speaking in unison."
  
  Brockett did say we could expect at least two tables from Norton. And of course the house could always have its problem solved with a convenient, and equally desirable, result: the other Norton nonfiction nominee Will In The World taking the prize.

  • Related: The Christian Science Monitor summarizes each of the NBA finalists for fiction.
  
  
  
• Its "lax editorial process makes a mockery of the £7,500 retail price," critics of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography tell the Telegraph.

  In spite of the time it took to produce, several hundred entries are thought to include incorrect dates, misspelt names and a "complete ignorance" of recent specialist research.
  
  Charles Harrison Wallace, a lecturer and author who has spent 25 years researching the life of his ancestor, the 18th century marine artist Peter Monamy, said that the biography of Monamy was "a scissors and paste job".
  
  He said: "I spotted 12 errors in the entry. As well as the factual mistakes, the biographer appears to have ignored much of the latest research into Monamy.

  Wallace goes on to call the Dictionary "the intellectual equivalent of the Millennium Dome" and "a jamboree of nonsense."
  
  
• "Beware of attacking 'poets,'" warns Bookninja.

  Said "poets" will be distinguishable by frothing ebullience, frequent lack of talent and the likelihood you've never heard of most of them. Approach with extreme caution and level 2 biohazard gear (we're pretty sure both enthusiasm and lack of judgement are contagious).

... The Poignancy of Stupidity: "Occasionally my song lyrics could stand alone, without music, but songwriting is about redundancy and a level of stupidity. Rock 'n' roll is stupidity - that's what makes it so wonderful. Elvis grunting says what a thousand Dylan Thomas words could never say. That's why rock 'n' roll is so poignant." [NY Post]

... Why Free Verse Means the Death of Poetry: "Look, music has to be played in a certain key, at a set tempo, in a style. Words aren't restricted like that. Word are like cartoons character who jump up into the sky ... and stay there. There are no rules. I'm sick of all the rules in music." [NY Post]

... Yeats: "I remember somewhere in the early '90s, Courtney Love sent me a book of Yeats, who I had never read. It was a birthday present, and she said, 'I think you'll like this because it's kind of reminiscent of the way you write.' And when I opened it, I was kind of stunned because if you didn't know better, you'd think I was ripping this guy off." [Boston Globe]

... Poetic Necessity: "Each poem adds its own sound to a bigger thing. There are individual poems that are like the hit songs, that are really strong. I shouldn't be saying this, but I think some poems in the book aren't very good. They create a sense of balance . . . that I felt had to be in there." [The Cleveland Plain Dealer]

... The Place of Poetry in the Modern World: "The highlight of this day was finding out that my book had made the New York Times bestseller list!!!! O-M-G! ... For some reason I assumed that poetry would be considered non-fiction, but I guess I can see the rationale for putting it in with the fiction books (cause its all lies)..." [Entry 10/24, BillyCorgan.com]

Further Reading:
-Bookslut's Michael Schaub recommends "this account of a Billy Corgan poetry reading" as "one of the funniest things I've read in a long time."
-PopMatters reviews Corgan's poetry collection, Blinking with Fists.
-Amazon.com presents a Blinking With Fists excerpt (PDF). (Sample quote: For fires consumed burn ever so bright/ Unable to be drenched in the place of my soul.)

Just recently named the world's first "City of Literature," Edinburgh is already struggling to live up to its title.

• The Scotland Herald reports that the Scottish Arts Council has withdrawn funding for the University of Edinburgh's writer-in-residence position. "To jeopardise that is quite wrong. There is some contradictory thinking going on to do this at the same time as Edinburgh becomes a City of Literature," Dr Alan Riach, head of the University of Glasgow's Scottish literature department, told the Herald.
• Meanwhile, The Daily Scotsman notes that "book borrowing in Edinburgh is plummeting faster than almost any other area in Britain," dropping 38.5 percent over the past five years. "Edinburgh is a wonderful city for literature," said Philip Pettifor, a spokesman for the charity group Libri. "But Edinburgh's libraries are dreadful and a disgrace to a country which prides itself on its heritage." "Opposition arts leader" Alistair Paisley added: "I'm disappointed that as City of Literature the rates have gone down, but the council are to blame for that by cutting library opening hours."
• Also in the Herald: an overview of criticism aimed at Edinburgh's taste in literature.

  Now Historic Scotland has been criticised by publishers for failing to stock books other than the tartan biscuit barrel variety.
  
  The Scottish Publishers' Association says the lack of diversity is embarrassing and amounts to an opportunity missed. It believes the kind of books on sale at the capital's tourist attractions are at odds with Edinburgh's new status as Unesco World City of Literature.

Last week, Publishers Weekly rolled out a laundry-list of new and upcoming titles in the "self-help" genre. And, since GC's a fan of help of any kind (...hullo, agents! ) and believes PW's list didn't give its books their proper due, she's decided to cheer along the self-help genre by awarding special (verbal) honors to this season's most notable titles. We call it the HELP WANTED Honor Roll, and encourage publishers to contact us for publicity or blurbing purposes.

Title	HELP WANTED Honor
How to Be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life (Dutton, Sept., $17.95)	Book Most Likely to Anorexi-Size Teen Girls
The Pleasure Revolution: Free Yourself to Live the Life of Your Dreams -- A Mother and Daughter Journey Toward Self-Discovery (Free Press, May, $25)	Worst Decline in Quality of Title, Post-Colon
Fat, Stupid, Ugly: One Woman's Courage to Survive (HCI, Sept., $12.95 paper)	Worst Gift Book Idea
Dante's Path: A Practical Approach to Achieving Inner Wisdom (Gotham, Sept., $14 paper)	Book Reference Most Likely to Lower Your Term Paper (>) a Full Grade
Cracking the Coconut Code: 7 Insights to Transform Your Life (Hay House/Princess Books, Jan., $14.95)	Most Life-Irrelevent Dilemna
The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need: The Bliss and Benefits of Embracing Your Guilt, Repressing Your Anger, and Throttling Your Inner Child (Basic Books, June, $24)	Most Likely to Have a Disappointing Sequel
Shining Through: Switch on Your Life and Ground Yourself in Happiness (RED WHEEL/WEISER CONARI Oct., $12.95 paper)	Most Pointlessly Extended Metaphor
Cleaning and the Meaning of Life: Finding Happiness Through Simplicity, Cleanliness and Comfort (HCI, Apr., $12.95 paper)	Most Threatening Lifestyle Title
Open to Desire: Embracing a Lust for Life -- Insights from Buddhism and Psychotherapy (Gotham, Jan., $25)	Best Misreading of an Eastern Religion
Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out (HCI, Jan., $12.95 paper)	Worst New Lingo