2009 is going to rule: new Thomas Pynchon, new Mary Gaitskill, and now...a new Kazuo Ishiguro short story collection. Best. Year. Ever. (Via.)

Happy holidays to me, kids: Amazon just let me know Mary Gaitskill's got a new book of short stories coming out in March. Score!

It's my firm belief that a blogger shouldn't have to apologize for the silence, but here I am, and I'm still going to apologize. I'm pretty much so completely mentally checked out right now. It's a little ridiculous. I mean, it's not fatal: I can tell you I just read (at long last) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and I can tell you I liked it better than Drown, that the dude just seems happier on a looser, larger canvas, but beyond that, hell, I don't know. It's a book, right? You knew that already.

I can also point out that the Reading Gaddis blog seems to be progressing nicely. For my own part I read about six pages last night and reconfirmed my desire to read the entire book and then I set the book down, reconfirming my desire to have that reading occur later. From whenever. There's also the continuing guilt over not starting 2666 even though I think by this point literally everybody is doing it but me. But.

I am actually reading Watchmen though, which is fun, though fucking Oscar Wao, like, hello, spoiler alert, if you know what I mean. Jerk. Not enough to put me off either book but whatevs.

But beyond all that? Big dreams, big plans, little execution. Focus time minimal. Sleep, either too or not nearly enough abundant. About that long winter's nap...

Oh god, god, no, please, no, just, no: "Mark Romanek to Adapt Never Let Me Go"

Mark Romanek has signed on to direct a big screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go. According to Production Weekly, Beach author and 28 Days Later/Sunshine screenwriter Alex Garland penned the adaptation.

Romanek is probably best known for his music video work. He directed the video for Michael and Janet Jackson’s "Scream" in 1995, a sci-fi themed video which won the 1996 Grammy for Best Music Video, and to date, is still the most expensive music video ever produced ($7 million). His other videos include Closer for Nine Inch Nails, Criminal for Fiona Apple, Devil's Haircut for Beck, and Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt".

Seriously? God. Just, fuck, what? I think I might vomit a little. Or a lot. Because at absolutely no point in this life have I thought, "You know what one of my favorite novels of all time needs? Some rotating pigs' heads, zombies, bondage gear, and a manorexic Cillian Murphy."

Seriously, the holidays are coming up, and if you make it your gift to me to make this not happen and in fact to go back in time and erase the moment from my brain when I realized it could happen, I will thank you for the rest of forever and then some. Please. With begging.