"Science fiction may be one of the defining literatures of the last century, but it's rare that its products get any kind of acceptance by the academy (and when they do, they're then generally called something else)." Guardian blogger Sam Jordison decides to try out a classic science fiction novel.

This post starts off kind of slow, but it gains momentum and is actually not a bad synopsis of the value of SF and fantasy, IMHO. It’s a reaction to the blank looks and raised eyebrows that seem to follow these two genres and a shot in the arm for what the writer prefers to call ‘imaginative literature’. And yes, it is literature. This, too, is addressed.

How do you feel about product placement in books? Is it okay for authors to make a buck by having their characters drink Coke or wear Cover Girl makeup? Or does it cheapen the story and the writer? It’s something to think about, as product placement in books is becoming rather prevalent these days.

"One of the Ten Commandments of Author Blogging is “thou must write a post explaining how thou writest thine novels.” And so, in an effort to save my immortal writerly soul from scribbler’s purgatory, I’m going to explain my process in easy numbered steps that anyone can follow."

“If you want to read books that tackle profound philosophical questions, then the best — and perhaps only — place to turn these days is sci-fi.” So says Clive Thompson, who feels that literary fiction has become a boring reflection of everyday reality and that science fiction is the last great literature of ideas.

Environmentally friendly and guilt free, book swapping sites are hugely popular. Aside from the obvious benefits for the trees, book swapping introduces readers to authors they normally wouldn’t have chanced. Not actually purchasing the book apparently lends freedom to the process of choosing the next read. But some authors, such as Jeanette Winterson, are not so keen on the idea.

w00t

or is that properly w00t! ?

runners-up: facebook, conundrum, quixotic, blamestorm

Vladimir Nabokov declared that “Don Quixote” was “cruel and crude” and that “Death in Venice” was “asinine” His onetime friend Edmund Wilson, on the basis of “The Trial” and “The Castle,” said he found it “impossible” to take Kafka seriously as a “major writer.”

What book gets your vote for being the most overrated?

Misha Defonseca, author of a best selling holocaust memoir in which she claims to have lived in the woods with a pack of wolves to escape from the Nazis, has admitted that nothing in the book she wrote was true.

Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years, was translated into 18 different languages during the 1990s and made into a feature film in France.

Writers have long lamented that television and video are killing reading and book. But video now offers a great way to get the word out about your book. It’s relatively inexpensive to create a great looking book trailer that can be distributed across the Internet for free.