Once you start looking for links to share, it seems like there are oodles of them. I never realized how much cool stuff I see in the course of a week!

Friends know that I don’t think much of electronic books and e-readers, even though I own a Kindle. There’s something much too special about physical books for them to disappear. In the Washington Post, Philip Kennicott mourns the loss of the personal library that is likely to accompany the change to e-books. All I can say is: you’ll get my 12,000 volume library from me when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Cat Rambo gets all practical about e-publishing on the SFWA website, making Luddites like me wish for a sabot to throw into the machinery.

More sad news: Jeff VanderMeer reports that The Best American Fantasy series is ending after three lovely volumes. Get your hands on these if you can. Here are links to them: one, two, three.

Norman Spinrad bemoans the state of the publishing industry, using his own works as examples of good work that can’t get published. Don’t look at me; I couldn’t finish Bug Jack Barron, and I tried.

Last week I posted a link from The Guardian about overrated writers. This week, here’s one about underrated writers.

SF Signal’s Mind Meld feature always has something wonderful to offer. This week, it’s about what comics and graphic novels an SF reader would like. I’ve read a lot of these, but there are a lot more that have only now made it onto my “must read” list. For instance, I’ve yet to read Transmetropolitan.

I’ve been on a hunt for new cookbooks lately, as I transition from a meat-eater to a mostly fruit-and-vegetable-eater (because it’s healthier, they tell me; though at this point, I’d kill for a good cheeseburger). Just in time, The Guardian offers a list of the 50 best cookbooks. Well, actually, this list is only of 40 of the best 50. Here’s the top 10.

How do writers make up their magic words? It’s a tricky balancing act to make sure you don’t sound too silly. Seems like J.K. Rowling might have had a good idea using Latin roots for many of Harry Potter’s spells.

Damien Walter compares genres to fossils. Be sure you read the comments; it’s an interesting discussion.

Hal Duncan talks about genre as well, basically dismissing the difference between genre fiction and what some more loftily call “literary fiction.” “The best way to overcome this is, I think, to call the bullshit for what it is,” he says, and that’s only one of the provocative phrases in the blog post.

Some genres – or subgenres, more accurately – should have run their course by now, don’t you think? If I see one more book with a title along the lines of “Moby-Dick and Vampire Bats from Hell,” I’m going to scream. So is Madeleine Robins, who has had the misfortune of being just barely in the forefront of a trend or two.

Another genre, steampunk, isn’t going away anytime soon. You can even attend a steampunk convention in Lincoln, England, next month. Don’t forget your monocle and your absinthe!

Can’t afford a vacation this year? Maybe a literary destination can help make up for that.

One of my guilty pleasures is Project Runway, and Tom and Lorenzo: Fabulous and Opinionated, a fashion blog, follows closely behind it. That’s why this post on the best-dressed literary characters caught my eye. I’m not sure I agree with the choices; they seem too linked to movies based on books for my taste. But it’s kind of fun to scroll through the list.

You may have heard that the Chesley Awards winners were announced last week. At this site, you can see the award-winning artwork. I recognized John Picacio’s artwork, but none of the others. I particularly like the Raoul Vitale illustration for “Unrequited”; it’s a shame it falls into the “unpublished” category.

Writing is hard, says an author whose first novel will soon be published, ten years after she began writing it. She’s not the only one who feels that way, as she explains in this interesting Slate article.

On the other hand, writing well is the best revenge says Alexandra Sokoloff, discussing her screenwriting experience in an interview on Jungle Red.

China Mieville talks about the books that made him what he is today in a great podcast from The Guardian. Could someone explain to me why no U.S. publication is coming up with as many great articles about all varieties of literature as the Guardian is? Anyone out there want to bankroll one, with me at the helm? I’d work cheap!

P.S. Publishing is one of my favorite small presses. They’re running a summertime special offer for their usually unaffordable (for me, at least) but lovely and eminently readable books. One of these days, when I’m rich, I’m going to subscribe to Postscripts.

Torque Control is restating its short story club this autumn. You can find links to all of the discussions from last year here. Highly recommended for those who like a bit of meaty discussion with your short stories.

Dan Wells really liked “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.”

A new feature of Sunday Links: compare and contrast different reviews of the same book, useful to potential readers, critics and book reviewers. You may have heard that Peter Straub published a new novel this summer called A Dark Matter. It’s been widely reviewed, mostly favorably, with one exception explicitly noted:

Jonathan McCalmont at Strange Horizons (as learned as one expects from McCalmont)

Maureen Corrigan in The Washington Post (who idiotically criticizes the book on the grounds that it’s about the supernatural; duh, Peter Straub, Washington Post! Great example of pairing the wrong reviewer with the wrong book)

The Book Smugglers

Horror writer Dale Bailey in the Los Angeles Times

Revolution SF

Dark Recesses

Flames Rising

Jenn’s Bookshelves

A Speculative Scotsman

Stefan Dziemianowicz at Locus Online

Blood of the Muse

My own review is yet to come.

One thing about the universe: it’s big. When you get to this website, hit play after the ad is done (sorry about the ad), then move the cursor all the way to the left to begin with the tiniest thing humans know about – so far. Then slowly move the cursor to the right and watch the universe grow. It’s absolutely fascinating, and wonderful fun.

Do you like your robots larger than life? Then this article is for you.

Okay, I admit that this link has nothing to do with literature, but if you love cats as much as I do, you’ll want to see the photos from this cat fashion show. There isn’t a single cat pictured who doesn’t look supremely pissed off. I hope the human companions of those cats are ready to have their throats slit in their sleep with the casual swipe of a claw, because those felines look intent on revenge.

And finally, just one little political link, just because it’s well-written and interesting: Newt Gingrich’s second wife – the one he proposed to while he was still married to his first wife – talks about his political ambitions. I hope a 2012 run for president is as much of a fantasy as she seems to think it is.