The week on Linklog

A selection of the interesting literary titbits that have scrolled by this week on the Linklog widget (it's on the right of the books blog , under the most viewed bit), RSS feed and Twitter feed: • Carson McCullers's dream lunch (it involved champagne, oysters and Marilyn Monroe ); first-novel jitters from Susan Sontag's publisher ; Paul the Octopus's more highbrow cousins . • The power of intelligent brevity ; the power of editing . • A scary new book-marketing gimmick involving blood ; a boring old one involving " shit ".