All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

HEY THERE, TWIT!
BOOKGASM has joined Twitter, so follow us, won’t you? Updates also appear at the bottom of our sidebar.

HEY THERE, SIS!
BOOKGASM would like to announce the official launch of our sister site, Athena’s Bookshelf. Basically, it covers all the kinds of books that we don’t: in other words, titles that appeal to women. Athena’s Bookshelf is run by my lovely and talented wife Malena Lott, author of the forthcoming novel DATING DA VINCI (preorder now! Nov. 1!). Be sure to let the fervent female readers in your life know about it, which will forever be linked in our sidebar. (I’m still trying to figure out if “sister site” is the right term since my wife is in charge; after all, I don’t sleep with my sister. Ewww … )

GAME ON!
With THE DIGITAL PLAGUE now in stores, author Jeff Somers offers another online narrative puzzle for you to wrap your head around. This one’s eerie, taking place on a messageboard where citizens of “Old New York” come to grips with the plague that’s taking over the city. If you have no job or are a trust-fund baby, see if you can’t take a day or two to solve it.

GAME ON AGAIN!
For less mind-taxing fun, head to Random House UK’s minisite for Chuck Palahniuk’s RANT: AN ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF BUSTER CASEY, where, in keeping with a theme of the novel, you can play a game whose object is to cause the “most monumental car crash possible!”

NEXT UP: ‘DUNE BABIES’
Ever wondered why science-fiction book series overstay their welcomes? So has io9.com, which offers seven solid reasons for the so-called “Herbert’s Syndrome.”

SPEAKING OF HERBERT …
AbeBooks has a list of the 10 most expensive yearbooks ever sold, with Frank Herbert’s high school one coming in second place, just behind William Faulkner’s, which went for $4,500.

BECAUSE NAIROBI IS, LIKE, WAY FAR
For a new online literary magazine dedicated to original fiction, poetry, author interviews and book reviews, check out SundaySalon.com. The group also holds reading series in New York City, Chicago and, um, Nairobi. —Rod Lott