I Guess You're Just What I Needed

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Hello all, hope the coffee is strong, the atmosphere comfortable, and the books enchanting.  When you are not busy counting and re-counting down the days to Spring Break (no judgment) there's a website that may be worth your time, even if it's just to know what the rest of the world is reading, (i.e. Seamus's exact situation.)  It's called Publishers' Weekly and from a brief perusal, the best comparison I can make is to call it the Wall Street Journal of the book world.  Though a good deal of the site really is devoted to the business side (especially telling was their bold tab at top of home page  BORDERS BANKRUPTCY WATCH: ALL OUR COVERAGE) there are some useful layman's tools--reviews, blurbs, and the comprehensive On-Sale Calendars which gave a preview of upcoming titles.  Apart from the typical releases from the omnipresent Jodi Picoult, Nora Roberts, and the ilk (again, no judgment) it turns out that everyone and their mother wants to release a memoir or cookbook.  I wish I was kidding but literally, April's selection is flooded with celebrities from Shania Twain to Billy Joel to Teresa from The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  Perhaps literature really is in it's dying throes, or maybe I'm just jaded, but I only found one promising book on the whole list:  Arthur Philips' The Tragedy of Arthur, a fictionalized memoir.  The interview with Philips, though brief, was enough to get me excited for the book.  Such examples lead me to believe that Publishers Weekly does meet a need for a book-starved culture...even if it does sometimes pander to a lowbrow set.Until next time!P.S. ***To be fair, Teresa Giudice can flip tables and help others make "fabulicious" Italian cuisine.  I for one, cannot claim such level of achievement.