As the Book World Turns

The week in books, in brief:

California Governer Jerry Brown signed a law to try and force online retailers to pay sales tax in the state (it’s not just Texas, folks.) In retaliation, Amazon terminated their affiliate program in the state. One affiliate responded with this open letter to Jeff Bezos.

And here’s an article from The New York Observer that describes how Amazon generates its positive “customer reviews.”

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is being turned into a horror film. (If they’re looking for a star, my apartment complex has a whole horde of aspiring starlets.)

Jeff Bridges bought the rights to Lois Lawry’s The Giver, and may star in the movie.

T. Bone Burnett and Danny Elfman have signed on to create the music for the film version of The Hunger Games.

Philip Roth declared he no longer reads fiction. Salon’s Laura Miller had an interesting response.

Grammarians are all in a tizzy this week from the announcement that Oxford has eliminated the Oxford comma.  As of this posting, debate rages on among journalists, copy editors and writers everywhere.  See? You didn’t even miss it, did you?

The New York Public Library was saved from major budget cuts. (And the state Senate of New York signed a law legalizing same-sex marraige – YEAH NEW YORK!)

We love MobyLives, the blog from Melville House, for plenty of reasons, one of which is for turning us on to news like this:  an anthropologist is asking to dig up Shakespeare’s grave to determine whether or not the bard was stoned when contemplating whether or not To Be.

Join the Reading Rainbow Flash Mob!

Neil Gaiman sings!  With Josh Ritter!

Happy 4th of July!  Quit whining about the canceled fireworks and go make your own, like this guy: