Smatterings

USA TODAY’s Binzesheimer, along with AP’s Hillel Italie and David Segal, NY1 and the NYT,

cover yesterday afternoon’s loooooooooooong Norman Mailer tribute at

Carnegie Hall. Both reports get a lot of the good stuff –

Stephen Mailer channeling his dad in voice, style and ability to say

“ratfuck” and mean it, Mailer’s last drink being a rum and orange juice, Kate Mailer’s hilarious monologue about teenage

rebellion in the Mailer household (though I think she probably wanted

to memorize the speech and couldn’t) – but it’s worth highlighting the most egregious clunkers of the evening, like Sean Penn delivering his “speech” on a Blackberry (WTF?

And dude, “Norman Mailer is dead” is not so profound. Not as much as

you think it is) and Joan Didion’s stupefyingly stultifying remarks

about THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG.

The Washington State Attorney General is looking into the Amazon/Booksurge/POD mess. Oh, this should be fun and a good lesson in antitrust, I hope.

Speaking of Amazon, they will be required to collect sales tax from customers based in New York State.

Reginald Hill explains his writing process to the Guardian’s Sarah Kinson.

Bob Minzesheimer also examines Sophie Dahl’s transformation from model to novelist.

Here are your Nibbie award winners. Patricia Cornwell took the crime/thriller award, fwiw, and these pictures are rather hilarious.

The Britannica blog is hosting an online symposium on the non-death of reading.

Leon Neyfakh discovers that Bob Miller’s “studio” idea for HarperCollins is pretty much what various small presses have been doing all along.

And finally, sometimes it doesn’t pay to open up a bedroom closet.