All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

‘SNUFF’ FILMS
To promote Chuck Palahniuk’s upcoming novel SNUFF, the book’s heroine — aging porn queen Cassie Wright — has her own MySpace page. I abhor MySpace, but at least it includes a hilarious faux trailer (more suggestive than explicit) for one of Cassie’s ’70s skin flicks: THE WIZARD OF ASS, also viewable at YouTube. Two more trailers will soon follow; here’s hoping that they’re as entertaining as this one (and that the book is even better).

GET ASTONISHED … AGAIN
Issue #3 of ASTONISHING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE is now available as a free download or to read online. This one is the first “all-story issue,” with new pulp tales from Bill Cunningham, Matthew Mayo and six others.

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SPIDER-BABY
Spider-Man’s “birth certificate” is now part of the permanent archives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as an anonymous donor has donated Steve Ditko’s original artwork from Marvel Comics’ AMAZING FANTASY #15, which marked the 1962 debut of our favorite wall-crawler. “The donation of these wonderful drawings is a treasured gift to the American people,” said Sara W. Duke, curator of popular and applied graphic art in the Library’s prints and photographs division. “Looking at the drawings inspires a new appreciation for the artist’s skill and design choices and also deepens our understanding of how a superhero created to attract a teenage audience became a cultural icon with mass appeal.” If you can’t make an appointment to see the real deal, you can view samples from the comfort of home.

FREE ‘BETRAYAL’
You have until May 13 to download a free copy of Aaron Allstone’s STAR WARS: LEGACY OF THE FORCE – BETRAYAL, courtesy of Del Rey. Visitors can choose between a PDF, audiobook or e-books for the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. The novel follows Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia after the events of RETURN OF THE JEDI. –Rod Lott

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CARTER COUNTRY
As Pixar assembles its animated JOHN CARTER OF MARS movie, see what Edgar Rice Burroughs’ interplanetary pulp hero would have looked like onscreen in the 1930s, had legendary animator Bob Clampett been given the go-ahead: awesome, like the Flesicher’s SUPERMAN cartoons. Meddling studio heads, bah! What do they know?

HOW DO YOU SAY ‘SNIKT’ IN JAPANESE?
Marvel Comics hopes to break into the lucrative manga field by letting two of its hottest properties loose into the Japanese format: X-Men and Wolverine, with the latter delving into the character’s history. Both will be published by Del Rey Manga and released in summer 2009.

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BOOKGASM has been added to the select feeds of PimpMyNews.com, which scours the web’s top 1,000+ news and blog sites and converts the new stories into audio, allowing you to listen via iPhone, iPod or MP3 player while you’re on the go. Get started here or simply click the “Listen to My Blog” badge at the bottom of our right-hand column. Sign up today; the service is free!

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INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF SHELF SPACE
Helping pave the way for the frenzy that will be the summer movie blockbuster known as INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, Bantam has brought several of the adventuresome archaeologist’s original novels of the early- to mid-1990s back in print. Among the mass-market paperbacks now available again are:
• INDIANA JONES AND THE HOLLOW EARTH by Max McCoy
• INDIANA JONES AND THE WHITE WITCH by Martin Caidin
• INDIANA JONES AND THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX by Max McCoy
• INDIANA JONES AND THE INTERIOR WORLD by Rob Macgregor
• INDIANA JONES AND THE DINOSAUR EGGS by Max McCoy
• INDIANA JONES AND THE SKY PIRATES by Martin Caidin

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GET ‘LOST’
Leisure Books has reissued Jack Ketchum’s 2001 novel THE LOST as a special tie-in edition to coincide with the new movie based on it. The movie is written and directed by Chris Sivertson (I KNOW WHO KILLED ME), and features Ketchum in a small role.

AND GET ‘LOST’ AGAIN
Mystery Guild’s back in the reissue game with two more omnibus editions in its LOST CLASSICS series. First up, LOCKED ROOMS contains three novels by “impossible crime” master John Dickson Carr: THE THREE COFFINS, TO WAKE THE DEAD and THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET. Second, TREVANIAN TIMES TWO collects a pair of assassination thrillers from single-named Trevanian: THE EIGER SANCTION and its sequel THE LOO SANCTION.

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Legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. In his long life, he had written more than 100 books, but he’ll forever be known for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

And rightfully so. Its power remains ever palpable all these decades later; I’ll never forget how riveted I was reading it for the first time in a crowded jury pool, waiting for my number to be called – and hoping it wouldn’t, so I could finish the novel in one sitting. It didn’t, and I did.

I can’t think of a more fitting tribute than this.

BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• FIRSTBORN by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
• SUNSTORM by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
• TIME’S EYE by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

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GET ‘INFECTED’
While you’re waiting for ANCESTOR author Scott Sigler’s buzzed-about hardcover debut INFECTED to hit on April 1, play the online game, in which you have to click the people who are, well, infected. The population grows with each level, and it’s pretty addictive. No wonder movie rights for the book have already sold to Rogue Pictures.

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‘SITUATION’: ALL FREED UP
Renowned fantasy author Jeff VanderMeer is offering a free PDF download of his newest book THE SITUATION before it hits print from PS Publishing.

NO-SHIT SHERLOCK
Penguin Books UK is reissuing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s entire Sherlock Holmes series with their best covers ever. Assuming you like the look of old horror movie posters … and who here doesn’t?

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ON LAYMON’S TERMS
In July, Leisure Books will release a “restored and uncut” version of Richard Laymon’s THE WOODS ARE DARK. Originally published by Warner in 1981, the novel was cut by about 50 pages, per the editor, who also demanded the ending change. As a result, two characters who were introduced just disappeared in the revisions. Laymon’s daughter Kelly helped put the new edition together and will provide the introduction.

KA-CHING!
Wanna win free books for a year? Of course you do.

IT’S ENO-RIFIC!
Wanna free, hour-long, ambient-mix MP3 of MUSIC FOR READING? Of course you do.

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FREE COMIC BOOK DAY GETS ‘GRAPHIC’
With 2008’s Free Comic Book Day slated for May 3, titles are being announced. Highlights include comics featuring Hellboy and B.P.R.D., Superman, Transformers, X-Men, Tiny Titans, Iron Man, The Simpsons, Atomic Robo, The Moth, Owly and Sonic the Hedgehog. Plus:
• Del Rey and Dabel Brothers offer a sampler with pages from their upcoming graphic novels based on Jim Butcher, George R.R. Martin and Dean Koontz novels.
• E.C. COMICS SAMPLER reprints four stories from the classic 1950s horror comics.
• Oh, and GRAPHIC CLASSICS makes its FCBD debut with a 64-pager containing all-new adaptations of stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Shelley, Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce and – scripted by yours truly – Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” To make sure your local comic shop will have it, tell your retailer to order it!

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WITHOUT REASON
James Reasoner – author of the recent BOOKGASM-approved DEATH HEAD CROSSING and DUST DEVILS – experienced tragedy last week when his and his wife’s home burned to the ground. They lost everything, but – thankfully – their lives. For details on how you can help, visit Bill Crider’s blog.

EONS OF EOS!
To celebrate its first decade in business, sci-fi/fantasy imprint Eos Books has picked 10 of its own titles it deems classics, which will be revealed each month on their website. The first pick in the “10 Years – 10 Books” promotion is Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. For further celebration, Eos will be giving away select titles as e-books; Robin Hobb’s SHAMAN’S CROSSING: THE SOLDIER SON TRILOGY, BOOK ONE is the first downloadble, for a limited time.

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VIZ BIZ GETS BIGGER
Manga purveyor VIZ Media is launching a new imprint called VIZBIG, which will feature omnibus editions of their top-selling titles with new cover art, color pages and bonus content. RUROUNI KENSHIN will be the first series to receive the VIZBIG treatment this month, with titles like DRAGON BALL Z and VAGABOND to follow. Initially, these quarterly editions will be priced at $17.99, and contain the first three volumes of the original graphic novels, plus author interviews, updated text and character art.

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MOVE ‘NEXT DOOR’
To coincide with the DVD release of the film, Leisure Books has re-released Jack Ketchum’s horror classic THE GIRL NEXT DOOR in a tie-in edition, utilizing the movie’s poster art for the cover. Like the previous edition, it contains two short stories at the end, but this new one also includes a bonus revealing interview with Ketchum and the film’s two screenwriters, discussing the translation from page to screen. If you’ve never read the novel (our original review is here), the pot’s just been sweetened.

DID SOMEBODY SAY MONKEYS? PART 2
The second issue of ASTONISHING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE is now available. This free-for-download e-mag features 130 pages of new, old-school pulp fiction and interviews (including one with CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL author Paul Malmont) and monkeys. There’s also a couple of non-fiction pieces for fans of cult TV and movies.

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WE JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE. YOU’RE WELCOME.
One final, can’t-miss last-minute gift idea for the holidays: Amazon gift certificates, from $5 to $5,000, never expire.

SELF-PROMOTION CORNER
The second edition of GRAPHIC CLASSICS: MARK TWAIN is now available, with 38 new pages in publisher Tom Pomplun’s adaptation of “Tom Sawyer Abroad,” illustrated by George Sellas. Comics carrying over from the previous, now-out-of-print edition are Rick Geary’s “The Mysterious Stranger,” Kevin Atkinson’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Simon Gane’s “Is He Living or Is He Dead?” and Nick Miller’s “The Carnival of Crime in Connecticut,” among many others. Coming up next in the GRAPHIC CLASSICS series: FANTASY CLASSICS, due in March, with an adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN by yours truly. For more information, visit the GRAPHIC CLASSICS website.

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LIVE AND LET READ
For those of us who haven’t yet snapped up Penguin’s Ian Fleming reissues with the snazzy covers, The Mystery Guild is making it easier – and a little more affordable – with the release of THE BOND FILES: VOLUME 1. This hardcover omnibus collects the James Bond adventures CASINO ROYALE, MOONRAKER and LIVE AND LET DIE in one handy volume. And the subtitle makes me hope they intend to run through the entire 007 catalog.

MAG-NIFICENT!
Amazon now has more than 150 magazines available for new or renewed subscriptions with an instant $5 rebate – no code required. Magazines make great, no-fuss holiday gifts, and their sale includes: Esquire, GQ, Maxim, Playboy, Blender, PSM, Xbox, The Strand, The New Yorker, MacLife and Comics Buyer’s Guide. Since some start at under $10, that amounts to $5 for a year’s sub. In other words, Holmes, that’s a damned good deal!

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HAVE AN EYEGASM …
The Book Design Review presents a look at the some of the coolest book covers of 2007, including several we’ve reviewed, from Robert Löhr’s THE CHESS MACHINE to Douglas Wolk’s READING COMICS. It’s hard to argue with most of the choices, and even harder to pick a favorite.

… AND AN EARGASM
Got 45 minutes to kill? BOOKGASM submits to a grueling interview with Hans Dekker from Wordsy.com in that site’s 20th podcast. Learn all about how good-looking I am and the worst book I’ve ever read.

BLACK SILHOUETTES WITH RED BACKGROUNDS FEATURING THE U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING ARE SO IN!

–Rod Lott

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INTRODUCING A KINDLE, GENTLER NATION
If you’re wondering what to get BOOKGASM for Christmas, Kindle – Amazon’s brand-new wireless, portable reading device – will do quite nicely, thanks. The $399 gadget may not have the wow appeal of the iPhone, but it does hold about 200 e-books, plus has automatic delivery of newspapers and a built-in dictionary. It’s kind of fun to watch it crash to the ground in slow-motion, too, if you scroll to the bottom of that page.

SLEEP IN, SAVE ANYWAY
More Amazon news: The day after Thanksgiving, they won’t have a cold, dark parking lot to line up in while you yawn – your body still comatose from tryptophan – but they will have a bunch of great deals to help you get holiday shopping done for less. This year, they’ve created a Black Friday page to make it easy, with hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST, along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time.

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THE FOURTH PROTOCOL
Polls are closed in the 2007 Weblog Awards, and BOOKGASM finished fourth (out of 10 nominees) for Best Literature Blog. The winner was Neil Gaiman, whom we never expected to beat, anyway. (The diary of a dead guy, on the other hand…) Congrats to our fellow nominees, and thanks to “King Rat” for nominating us in the first place and to everyone who voted and helped spread the word! Today, fourth; tomorrow, the world!

SELF-PROMOTION CORNER
BOOKGASM merits two pages of discussion in the new book THE BOOKAHOLICS’ GUIDE TO BOOK BLOGS, by Rebecca Gillieron and Catheryn Kilgarriff, within the chapter “Fan Blogs, Obsessives and the Extreme.” We’re honored to be a part of this incisive look at “a new and entirely independent literary force,” and even more so to be featured right alongside our friends at Curt Purcell’s Groovy Age of Horror.

HOLIDAY SHOPPING MADE EASY
Remember that if you shop at Amazon this holiday season, please click any of our links to take you there first. That way, BOOKGASM benefits from any order your place, which helps keep this site alive. To help expedite holiday shopping, Amazon now has its ongoing Holiday Toy List and Gift Central set up.

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BOOKGASM is one of 10 finalists in the Best Literature Blog category of the 2007 Weblog Awards, the world’s largest blog competition. While it’s an honor to be nominated, it’d be nice to win, too.

That’s where you come in, member of the BOOKGASM faithful! Surf over to http://2007.weblogawards.org/polls/best-literature-blog-1.php and cast your vote for us! All it takes is one click.

You can vote once a day per computer through end of polls, which is Thursday, Nov. 8. Tell any friends you know who read us to do the same, and thanks for your support!