• Max’s Year in Reading series has been outstanding on the whole, but I am absolutely delighted by today’s installment: Freddy Krueger.
• J.L. Bell has begun a series of thoughtful posts in reaction to the New Yorker’s "Twilight of the Books" article. So far, there are two: "Next Slide Please" and "Twilight of the Bard?"
• Erin’s Year of Links.
• Covetable wallpaper.
• The pleasures of fantasy languages. I wish my mind worked that way.
• Laini Taylor on The Golden Compass movie vs. book and her disappointment with the adaptation (which is worth reading regardless of your feelings for her typically fabulous write porn commentary). I must confess–and I realize this completely jettisons my credibility on a number of levels–that I hadn’t read the Pullman trilogy and waited to do so until after seeing the movie on purpose. Not having read the book(s), the movie worked pretty well for me–and, yes, I immediately read it. And loved it.* (Now I’m reading The Subtle Knife. And Peter Cameron’s excellent Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You.) Anyway, the thing I think is made so clear in contrasting the film and the book with each other is the difference between novel logic and movie logic. Movie logic is never going to truly work for a story as complex as The Golden Compass, because that’s not its nature. So, they have to simplify things–little things, big things, almost EVERYTHING–and there’s a lot that’s lost with a story like this, in that simplification. But GREAT eye candy and I enjoyed the hell out of it while watching (and wasn’t confused by it at all). I want an armored bear!
• Steve Erickson interviewed at Bookslut.
• Matt Cheney has a question for the hive mind about kids and reading that I think you guys can help him out on: A couple of parents asked me for recommendations of places where their kids could find out about books they might like. No answer came to mind, because I’ve never looked at the sorts of websites or resources that kids might look at, and I honestly wouldn’t even know where to begin. … I’d particularly love to know if there are any teen-oriented blogs out there that ever talk about books, particularly blogs by teens themselves. If you were (or are) a teenager, what sorts of resources would help you discover books you might like?
• Glowing kitties! (Via Maud.)
• I’m feeling antsy and too plugged in lately, so I have no idea what the future holds for this space. It’ll probably pass though, so, likely, more of the same.

*On our flight into Austin there was this really awkward moment where the incredibly blond, incredibly tidy flight attendant–who had already been supermean to the poor guy next to me when he wanted more ice–leaned over and said, "What do you think of the book? Let me see how far you’re in." I showed her. "Oh, you’re almost done. So, what do you think about all the things people are saying about it?" I couldn’t tell where she was going, but was deadly afraid it was the whole anti-religion thing. "Um, I think it’s a cracking good fantasy adventure story," I said, and yes, it’s more, but I was walking the fine line here. "Exactly! I loved all three and they are wonderful fantasies. That’s what I’ve been telling all the parents on my flights–let your kids make up their own minds!" Sometimes, humanity still has the capacity to surprise in the good way.

To close tabs… And as someone who just sent 90 incredibly rough pages of fiction, two essays, an annotated bibliography and a letter via the e-mail to close out the semester, I can truly say: Boy, my arms are tired and I need a drink. This MFA stuff is not for wimps, I’m telling you. (And, please, for the love of all that exists, don’t start about how much harder real physical labor is. Please. That’s a different kind of hard.) And now we go to a workshop! (But there’s an after-party!)

• The Rake summarizes the low points–as only he can–of responses regarding litblogs from NBCC members in a recent survey on ethics in book reviewing. If that’s not enough, here’s more crankypantsing.
• The Beast of Bolivia, N.C. (Via Jenny.)
• I am beginning to love Numb3rs, despite inconsistent writing, for the sheer geek-love exhibited by this show. Not to mention the continued casting of just about everyone who has ever been on The Wire in a character role. Also, they cast the bad guy from Real Genius and the inventor of the flux capacitor in back-to-back episodes.
• Bill Clinton vs. George Saunders. (Via Erin.)
• The idea issue of NYT Magazine.
• John Kessel’s new collection=makes me happy even when my brain is fried!

• Lots of good stuff in the LA Times book coverage this week: Ed Park’s favorite SF titles of 2007, Sonja Bolle’s favorite kids titles (I so want that NYReview reprint of Uncle), and Denise Hamilton on the magic of Beverly Cleary and Klickitat Street (those books do hold up so, so well).
• Scott sets the record straight on the lies circulating about the His Dark Materials book; he’s a smartie pants.
• Liz Hand points out some great books from 2007 you may have missed in the Village Voice.
• Jenny D points to Atul Gawande’s New Yorker piece on the value of checklists in preventing medical errors; I recently finished Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance and highly recommend it.
• Uma Krishnaswami on writing with children in Delhi.
• My MFA program — the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults — has just revamped its Web site.
• Terry Teachout attends an advance screening of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd and gives me hope that it will be excellent.
• Finally, the must-read Nobel speech of Doris Lessing. Seriously, read it: We have a treasure-house of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come up on it. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be.