Twitalicious

There is simply not enough time to report fully on the all the stories that catch our eye and float by our desks. However, we do manage to comment on a fair amount of those stories in our microblogging presence on Twitter. (Don’t let anyone steer you wrong: it’s a lot easier and faster to write a 140 character story than a real one.)

Here, then, are some of the things we’ve reported on Twitter over the last few days:

Awards, awards and then some awards: The shortlists for both the National Book Awards and the Governor Generals Awards were announced yesterday. Some surprises on both lists. And what does it all mean? Big book party time is approaching fast and furious.

The 10 Coolest Bookstores in the United States. (I’d love to see someone do lists like this for Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Any takers?) The U.S. list is here.

Here’s something not intended for your Kindle: The fur-covered edition of Dave Egger’s The Wild Things (McSweeney’s Books). The movie tie-in edition is based loosely on the book by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay co-written with Spike Jonze.

Passages: Anne Friedberg and Stuart M. Kaminsky.

National Post Books reviews Egg on Mao (Random House) by Denise Chong. We just love the title.

Lonely Planet ramps up Digital Strategy.

Though it’s yet another round-up of “links around the Web,” we could not resist this title: “Bookmarks: Terminatrix Palin, Wild Things art, and the interactive Proust questionnaire.” Quill & Quire wins our come-on-title-of-the-week award. (Did you even know we had such a thing? Me neither.)

Boing Boing brings word of this Reading Radar API mashup that adds Amazon-easy information to the New York Times’ bestseller list. Oddly useful, right? It’s here.

Kinda Boing Boing related, but not really: the delicious Cory Doctorow blows his top. “The author, activist and co-editor of the influential Boing-Boing blog,” said the Bookseller, “urged TOC delegates to ‘restore ownership to books’ and blasted publishers and rightsholders who continue to apply DRM to their content.” Go, Cory!

Bookselling megastar Colm Toibin has launched a new imprint, Tuskar Rock, with fabled agent Peter Straus.

“Crazy insane beautiful 43 seconds of pure Pop. Works with all music. A complete brain snack,” from the wonderful @DougCoupland. January’s 2001 interview with Coupland is here.

Ken Bruen has been awarded the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière 2009 for Priest.

Emily Flake sends dispatches from the Small Press Expo in Maryland.