1. Don’t believe the trending Twitter topic: Kanye West is not dead. [via NME]
2. Yesterday Barnes & Noble launched an unfortunately-named but rather cool e-reader set to rival the Kindle: the Nook. [via LAT]
3. Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and James Gandolfini are largely responsible for one of the strongest fall seasons for Broadway ticket sales in recent years. [via NYT]
4. Tom Cruise’s publicist has responded to Cousin Balki’s accusations of the star’s homophobia on the set of Risky Business. [via TV Guide]
5. A bathroom run disqualified Dave Chappelle from topping Dane Cook’s record for longest set at the Laugh Factory — seven hours, 34 minutes remains the number to beat. [via AP]

Nicholson Baker’s tenth novel, The Anthologist, finds the acclaimed experimental novelist offering a pared-down love letter to poetry itself.

Never one for straightforward narrative, Baker revels in his protagonist’s meandering alienation following the loss of his girlfriend. As the poet struggles to write the introduction to an anthology, the story touches on themes of literary craft and compulsion, as well as offering an overview of poetry heavyweights — but skirts insidery navel-gazing by anchoring itself in the narrator’s own battle with banality. Read More »

1. Guitar Hero 5 lets you be Kurt Cobain. [via Stereogum]
2. HBO is considering a new series based on Dan Savage’s sex advice column, Savage Love. [via THR]
3. Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour is funny… ? [via The Daily News]
4. Recently-returned CEO Steve Jobs is micromanaging the creation of Apple’s tablet, aka, the Kindle killer. [via The Daily Beast]
5. A tweaked release date for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox suggests Fox Searchlight thinks it’s a winner. [via Slashfilm]

Though some schools are handing out Kindles for free (only to be met with controversy from the blind community), Amazon is still in trouble for the Orwell debacle and The Free Software Foundation is petitioning them to relinquish control of e-books customers buy.

Barnes and Noble is getting into the game with free WiFi in their stores creating what they are calling “the world’s largest e-bookstore.” The software will be available for free on the iPhone, iPod touch, smart phones, computers and the Plastic Logic E-Reader, which is expected to come out later this year. Read More »

1. G-Force might have trumped Harry Potter at the weekend box office here in the US, but its global boxoffice total is already $627.2 million, making it the 39th biggest-grossing title in history after just 12 days. [via THR]
2. Robert Downey Jr. will star with Zach Galifianakis in Due Date, another Todd Phillips-directed baby/road trip comedy that begins shooting this fall. [via Variety]
3. Can the Apple tablet really take down the Kindle? (This probably isn’t helping.) We’ll know by Christmas. [via Bookseller]
4. Smashing Pumpkins debut a new drummer and a new song penned by Billy Corgan (working title: “Freak”). [via Stereogum]
5. Many art galleries in LA are expanding, in spite of the recession (we’re looking at you Gagosian, Blum & Poe). [via LAT]

1. Jay-Z will replace the Beastie Boys as the Friday night headliner at the All Points West Music & Arts Festival. [via Arts Beat]
2. Amy Winehouse is in court for drunkenly slugging a woman who tried to snap her photo at a charity ball. [via BBC]
3. Frank Miller recently finished a graphic novel sequel to 300, which could serve as the basis for a follow-up film. [via THR]
4. America’s most trusted newscaster now that Walter Cronkite is gone? Jon Stewart, natch. [via Time]
5. The Kindle craze will go international, hitting the U.K. beginning in October. [via Bookseller]

For those of you who are new to the Big Brother Book Club, we give up our precious subway reading time each week to bring you the scoop on what the world around us is reading. It’s a hard job filled with all kinds of exciting espionage-related tasks we dare not speak of to the unindoctrinated. Just know, that wherever you are reading, the book spy is out there, working hard for you. Read More »

Who knew bookworms could be so badass? The Kindle 2 has just received the bootleg treatment. Made by one of Peking University’s founders, this six-inch screen book reader will use “cellular connection” (i.e. a SIM card) to download books from its own bootleg ebook software, “Apabi.” The device itself is called “WEFOUND,” which is short for, “We found out how to bootleg your precious Kindle, silly Americans! Mwahaha.” And wouldn’t you know it, the faux-Kindle is a whopping $80 cheaper! Read More »

In High Fidelity, Nick Hornby’s pop culture-obsessed protagonist posited that “What really matters is what you like, not what you’re like.” If we accept that our very identities are intertwined with our taste in music, movies and books, the advent of Amazon’s Kindle (now a steal at $299) does start to seem a bit worrisome. In August’s Vanity Fair, James Wolcott laments the passing of a time when every New York City subway ride presented “an opportunity to spy on the reading tastes of fellow passengers and make snap judgments that probably wouldn’t hold up in court.”

Wolcott poses an important question: “How can I impress strangers with the gem-like flame of my literary passion if it’s a digital slate I’m carrying around, trying not to get it all thumbprinty?” Tricky, but not impossible! We’ve got a few ideas. Read More »

1. It’s D-Day. As in Digital TV transition. The Live Feed will be tracking the mayhem here, but let it be known that my sister is watching the Today Show as I type this using her old rabbit ears.

2. For some reason John McCain feels like he needs to defend Sarah Palin from David Letterman, which is weird because I thought he totally hated her.

3. Let the ebook wars begin: Simon & Schuster will release around 5000 digital titles via Scribd.com — not Amazon — because they give publishers more control over pricing and larger revenue. Hear that? It’s the sound of a baby Kindle, whimpering. 

4. Stereogum asks if Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca is the best album of 2009. You know, because it’s June, and posts like this really make sense. They’re streaming the entire thing over there too if you’d like to listen and weigh in.

5. Prepare to have your mind blown: Paul Shaffer says he was handpicked by Jerry Seinfeld to play the role of George Costanza sans audition. But he never called Seinfeld back about it because he was “too busy.” Huh.