The age of the blockbuster. Shrinking midlists. Great American novel of the last 25 years. Why is our culture so reductionist? That's what Boston Globe chief book critic Gail Caldwell discusses in today's paper, responding to other people's responses about the NYTBR's poll (yes, people are still talking about it. Who knew?)

"Parlor games like the Times's keep us hopping and keep us honest. They make us invent our own alternative lists," says Caldwell. But she adds one more thing: "No one vote or ranking can ever encompass the power and glory of what we love about the books we love." No matter if they are deemed important by others, or just by ourselves.

Which goes right into Natasha Walter's opinion piece in the Guardian about Chris Anderson's THE LONG TAIL, and why people are insanely excited about what the book promises - an honest-to-god middle ground. Still, she remains cautious. "Just as the small independent bookshop is being squeezed both by supermarkets and online retailers, so we may find that if our culture becomes so dominated by the blockbuster on one hand and the long tail on the other, something precious is going to get squeezed out of the middle."