• Jonathan Franzen will be the key note speaker and will kick off his International Tour for his new book Freedom at the DBF
• My pal Todd Moye will be reading from his book Freedom Flyers.  Even cooler?  His mother Dorothy “Dot” Moye will be part of a Hurricane Katrina panel presenting photographs from her X Codes Project.    Are they the first Mother/Son duo at the DBF?  I’m going to say that’s the case until someone tells me otherwise…
• The Theatrical Outfit will be participating in several events to celebrate the opening of their stage adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces.  I will be at all of these events regardless of whatever else may be happening.
• Pulitzer-winning poet Natasha Trethewey will be presenting her new book Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
• Our friends at the Wren’s Nest are back this year with not one but two! writing compilations by Atlanta-area kids. Scroll down this list of activities to read about the awesomeness that is The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.  You are free to read about the other activities while you’re there.
• And…well you can check out the complete list of authors at this year’s fest (so far…) to see who the DBF has lined up.

Since you can’t wait for us to tell you all of the news, spend your morning clicking around the Decatur Book Festival’s website for more.

Best of all the million headlines so far: Bunch of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger.

In about 48 hours, it will NO LONGER BE THERE BECAUSE DAVID COPPERFIELD IS MAKING IT DISAPPEAR.

Kidding. The truth is only slightly less exciting:

In about 48 hours, book people from all over the world will be descending on the above conference center for what is, basically, the publishing industry’s version of a multi-ring circus-Book Expo America. Hundred thousand trillions, or w/e, of publishing industry professionals (read as: drunks) will all gather to discuss the future of the industry, and to marvel at Steven Tyler’s lips.

No, really, he’s going to be there.

AND SO WILL BABY GOT BOOKS.

That’s right-Baby Got Books will be the ONLY place to get the on-the-scene BEA coverage from Operative Agent Russ Marshalek…me. Yeah, third person, all that jazz.

I will also attempt to cover my own BEA afterparty, the BEA Tweetup. That may be really difficult as I’ll be drunk.

This is what my BEA schedule looks like:

Written on scrap paper, held in place with wine. Perfect.

See you starting Thursday.

Page 2…

Etc. Scroll down to see what this post looked like in all of its original glory for comparison.  

If you want to subscribe to our blog to make sure that you never miss a post, I would recommend using Google Reader, which is readily available from any computer with an internet connection. For FREE.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, this handy “how to” will tell you everything that you need to know.

Some days I forget how completely I have been forgotten.

Plans are afoot to try to purchase the property and make it into a museum.  I need this to happen so that I can visit.

In the New York Review of Books, Sue M. Halpern has an interesting essay about financial success that features gazillionaire Warren Buffet Malcolm Gladwell.  A sample:

Buffett, it is safe to say, has a different relationship to money than you and me. For us it’s a means to an end. For him, it’s a vocation. He is called to it. If it’s for anything, it’s for getting more of. The man is a collector. He just happens to collect dollars.

In non-book news, The Pump Handle blog is a fantastic source for public health news is you’re into that sort of thing.  For the last few weeks there has been frequent mention in the press that x number or people die of influenza (the flu) in any given year.  The PH answers the question: How do we know how many people die of the flu in a year?  Short answer: educated guess.

1. Buy a book at any of these fine southern independent book stores
2. Mail in your receipt with a form
3. Free book in the mail

Wanda Jewell, Executive Director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) picks the book from her personal library.  

In other news, the April/May classes for the Agnes Writes creative writing series offered at Agnes Scott College have been announced.  The class offerings include Fiction Shop, Eat/Drink/Travel writing, and the Art and Craft of Revision.

If this email finds you somewhere on the populated Earth, you may have heard a lot of talk of doom and gloom recently. We here at McSweeney’s object. Look, we like Paul Krugman as much as anyone, and who doesn’t love a good stimulus package, but all this focus on the negative can be a little counterproductive. Look around you! This is still a world full of wonders, and among these wonders are fine printed books, some of which are created by us here at McSweeney’s.

We want to help you remember these wonders within easy reach. And so: This week, every book on our site is $15. Wait, not every — some are $5. Not cheap enough? Okay, a few are $1. Go to it! Fill up a bag and help us spread the joy. Help us save America!

Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends is $5.  You’re insane if you don’t pick up a copy at that price.  Insane!  Also: The “What happens in the La Brea Tar Pits stays in the La Brea Tar Pits” shirts are only $15.  Cheap.

First, a movie is imminent for Stieg Larsson’s international best-seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (review). The book was called Men Who Hate Women in Sweden, but it was changed for the US.  The movie will be in Swedish.  I don’t know if the latest from Stokholmwood will make it to the US in subtitles.  From the little on IMdB, it doesn’t look like it.

Here’s the trailer (found thanks to post on Bokhhora with a line that I love – “This year’s autumn semester ends unworthy of blueberry soup…”:

Second, in an apparently unexpected development, Horace Engdahl has stepped down as the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.  He will be replaced by author and historian Peter Englund.

The badly translated Swedish lit blog blog reaction to the news is, well, I’m not sure…

“Fleet! I say that like Peter E.,” says Johanna Ö at Bokhora

and

Lisa Jannerling at Bokbloggen says, “I like the contradiction of the whole…Many questions arise. How will we do without Horace? Peter Englund will be able to fill the chamber? Exciting.

I didn’t understand the hubbub until WikiPedia helpfully pointed out that the Swedish Academy “…amongst other business, announces the names of Nobel Prize laureates. The latter makes it arguably one of the most influential literary bodies in the world.”  So there you go.