I’m starting a new feature here at Reading the Leaves: Sunday Links. I spend a fair bit of time surfing the web and reading about books, finding all manner of interesting things. I thought it was time I shared.

The Huffington Post says it knows who the most overrated writers are. It seems like a rather arrogant post – though I thoroughly agree with their choice of Michiko Kakutani, a book reviewer for the New York Times. I’ve long thought the Times should fire her and hire me!

Speaking of the Times, the essay in today’s Book Review is about how young adult literature has a big audience among grown-ups who enjoy plot in their novels. I’d like to suggest to them that they give science fiction, mysteries, horror and fantasy a try, though there certainly is a lot of good work going on it the young adult field.

Last week was Feminist Science Fiction Week at The Rejectionist. There are many good posts, including one about Elizabeth Hand, one of my personal favorites.

Language and feminism are the subject of an essay at Ambling Along the Aqueduct. Are we all using the same key words the same way?

Science fiction critic Paul Kincaid has written about rereading at Big Other. I, like Kincaid, rarely reread, so his post and the ensuing comments made very interesting reading.

What to read next? It’s a question that often plagues me, living as I do with thousands of books I haven’t gotten to yet, as well as tens of library books all due soon. It’s the subject of several essays at Critical Mass.

If you’re really stuck about that next book, you could do a lot worse than read one of those books that will stand the test of time, according to the Mind Meld at SFSignal. Certainly I agree with the several folks who recommended Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life: and Others – one of the best single-author collections of short stories you will ever read.

Or you can just pick something completely new from Fantasy Book Critic’s monthly listing of new releases. Even in the dog days of summer there is no shortage of good fantasy coming out.

Then there are those who look at books as art objects instead of as great sources of good stuff to read. Like the fellow who built a medieval tower out of a few thousand of them. Or you could plant a bonsai in the middle of one. I find this sort of thing profoundly depressing. Yes, I like books as objects; that’s why I’m not crazy about my Kindle. But they’re objects that can be read. Take away that utility, and you take away a book’s purpose. I can’t really be the only one who still loves physical books for what they really are, can I?

One thing to be said for e-readers, though, is that they’re bringing back the classics. Or are they simply promoting rip-offs? Grasping for the Wind tries to sort it all out.

Do religion and science fiction really mix? This essay suggests that most science fiction writers treat religion as a quaint oddity, but that some works treat the subject seriously.

Jonathan McCalmont writes the most scholarly essay about role-playing games you’ll ever read in his most recent Blasphemous Geometries column. Jonathan is an amazing critic who writes beautifully; if you don’t know his work yet, this column will blow you away.

You’ll have noticed, if you’ve read Reading the Leaves for long enough, that I’m a big fan of independent publishers and small presses. Alisa Krasnostein, guest-blogging on Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days, writes about how inde presses work – or at least, how they should work.

Matthew Cheney is revisiting Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Makes me want to get my copies out and reread this great comic from the get-go.

Someone is always predicting that science fiction is either dead or dying. This time its Jetse de Vries in a post that includes a good many links to those who agree or disagree – and he goes further, asking whether it should die. A provocative bit of writing.

Have you ever wanted to live in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry? Here’s your chance. I think it would be a blast.

I’m looking forward to reading Mary Robinette Kowal’s new book and first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey. On John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, she’s written a Big Idea guest post about the book.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has an excerpt from Nnedi Okorafor’s new book, Who Fears Death. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one.

Diabolical Plots interviews Eugie Foster, author of the Hugo-nominated “Sinner, Baker, Fablist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast.”

Mystery writer Marcus Sakey is interviewed at Jen’s Book Thoughts.

Rick Kleffel, for whom I used to write book reviews at The Agony Column, has a podcast of an interview with Justin Cronin, author of this summer’s hottest book, The Passage.

Horror writer Sarah Pinborough is interviewed at Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews.

And finally, Jonathan Strahan has a great podcast of a conversation with science fiction critic Gary K. Wolfe up on his website.