HOW TO GRACEFULLY COUNTENANCE AN OBVIOUS SNUB; or, OR NOT

as you've no doubt already noticed, there is still no link to 'looking good in pants' at salon.com. in fact, a not so exhaustive search of the site turned up only one result dated after the inception of this blog, a letter entitled "pot ruined my son's life" that was featured in the "since you asked" section. you've no doubt also noticed that i've given up on laura miller's experiment. i did think about keeping it up whenever writing about ms. miller, but, seeing as she's taken more of a rival's stance than a peer's, i wasn't strongly encouraged. then i thought compromise. since the experiment challenges web writers to write completely and thoughtfully without leaning on links for source material or (often) necessary background information, i thought that maybe i could embed my links so as to include all of that information within them, which would allow readers to decide whether or not they wanted to pursue any potential extras of nuance; although that could still, admittedly, work adversely on their retention spans. kidding, laura. kidding. though it's painfully clever.

but i'll demure from further contention. indeed, i was only caught in the crossfire of the hyperlink war after visiting salon to find out about its new reading club (which i'd found out about from a mention in monday's edition of publisher's lunch). the club touts its atypicality among online book groups based on a format that will facilitate discussion by readers not only after they've finished a book, but during their readings as well. ms. miller will direct the discussions. the club will first discuss the passage by justin cronin. read laura miller's review here. she liked it -- obviously, because it made the club, but i'm guiltily feeling the need to describe my links. for those of you who just kept reading: she says something about bridging the niceties of literary prose and the captivating storytelling of genre fiction. also there are vampires.

sadly, there isn't any space left in my summer entertainment calendar for vampires. i told a friend that i'd read twilight, and it's been an unexpectedly arduous endeavor. i'm hoping to get through the second half by tomorrow. cocktails should help. PLUS, i'm just coming off of watching the second season of "true blood" on dvd and need to spend all of my allotted vampire time to tracking down people with hbo that will let me go over to watch season three.

the real question is whether 'looking good in pants' should have a rival (CLEVER!) book group of its own. for a start, it would help me put up that summer reading list. twilight, maybe? it is set in the northwest, which is a(n at least ostensible) focus of ours. and what could be more interesting than reading the fake discussions i'll have with myself in the comments behind the veil of thinly characterized readers? (if no one's actually reading this, that right there counts as one.) laura miller might even show up in the conversation from time to time. i'm sure she's just as busy as i am and simply hasn't gotten around to reading our archives yet. it did, after all, take me all week to finally getting around to reading up on her new group. she also apparently co-founded salon.com. and writes for the book review. see? you can't always get everything the first time through.

'looking good in pants' is going to sit out the passage, but in all likelihood we'll be there for the discussions on july's pick. until then, read my links: no sloppy writing. damn. this stuff just writes itself.