Maya Sloan graduated from BU's fiction program in 2007. In June, she published her first young adult novel, High Before Homeroom. She also published her senior prom picture on her homepage, along with a very good essay about why being a teenager is horrible. You can see it here.

Sigrid Nunez, a novelist who recently released her sixth book, Salvation City, will start teaching at BU next fall.

Living Social is offering a heckuva deal: a $20 Amazon gift certificate for $10.

Of course, you'll have to spend another $5 to qualify for free shipping. And there's that whole thing about Amazon basically being the Death Star. But I have devised a way to use this coupon guilt-free: buy a book the rapacious monolith hasn't discounted.

Scientists agree: this is the most depressing time of the year. Now is the time to hunker down with a soul-destroying novel. To follow is a list of the fifteen most depressing novels ever written, as determined in a scientific survey of my Facebook friends.

• The Apes of God by Wyndam Lewis: A simpleton is mocked by the Bloomsbury Group.

Tonight | Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge | 7 pm

When Vyacheslav Molotov wasn’t busy helping Stalin commit genocide and sundry misdeeds, he collected rare and beautiful books. Journalist Rachel Polonsky got to know this when, for a time, she lived in his apartment.

It's no secret Yahoo! Answers is the cesspit of the Internet, a place where coherent thought goes to die. Recently, I found out it had a Books section. I went searching for Babby, but instead I found a few confused people, some misguided aspiring authors, and a whole bunch of high school students too lazy to do their homework.

It's no secret Yahoo! Answers is the cesspit of the Internet, a place where coherent thought goes to die. Recently, I found out it had a Books section. I went searching for Babby, but instead I found several confused people, some misguided aspiring authors, and a whole bunch of high school students too lazy to do their homework.

I hate hardcovers, and I fully support those who don't buy them. For we who wait, here's a list of when my five favorite books from 2010 that have yet to come out in paperback will be released in paperback, presented in chronological order (though the Jennifer Egan is my favorite by a huge margin):

The Ask by Sam Lipsyte: March 1st ($15.

Here's a list of the top five forthcoming books about which I'm most excited (this week at least):

1. The Great Night by Chris Adrian (May)

Is each era allowed only one true genius? If that's not total nonsense, Chris Adrian is our man. Whose novels are better than his novels? Not yours, that's for sure.

2. Pity the Billionaire by Thomas Frank (July)

Donna Tartt has a new book in the works. According to the store blog of Greenwood, MS independent Turnrow Books:

This weekend, I met someone who had read Infinite Jest twice. "I read it thrice," I told him. My one-upmanship wasn't entirely honest -- the third time was only a partial. Now there's a blog that makes me feel/seem like even more of an affected asshole.

People Holding 'Infinite Jest' is a brand-new Tumblr that collates photos of people holding Infinite Jest