As our city girds itself for the tsunami of book boosterism that's about to sweep Copley Square this weekend (to refresh your memory on just how incredible last year's Boston Book Fest was, check out our 2009 podcast archives), it seems like this is the perfect opportunity to wax introspective on one of the greatest novels of all time.

There's nothing that anyone reading this post could've done to prevent the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Someone (or a group of someones) with a lot of responsibility fucked up, finger pointing ensued, and in all actuality, people may be better served saving their breath. The irrevocable damage has been done and one of the richest ecosystems on our increasingly faltering planet is now tainted beyond repair

^{Amanda Marcotte, as Bandolier-and-Secret Service Palin}

Waaay back in 2007, before his reputation was massacred by his extramarital relationship with the oh-so-sage and graceful Rielle Hunter, “Johnny” Edwards was more concerned with how the ladies he appointed to blog for him could harm his presidential bid.

So JEREMY RENNER was one of few people associated with The Hurt Locker who didn't win an Oscar last night. But it's not like he's gone completely unrewarded for his role in the film: above, video from this past February of Renner accepting his Best Actor from the Boston Society of Film Critics, along with an interview by Loren King.

From the looks of things, a lot of you folks intend to make 2010 the Year of More Writing. Need a little inspiration to help you battle the blank page? Well, we can't help you with that one -- but maybe these local authors can, as they reveal their thoughts on the writing process, and give us a glimpse of the forces that shaped their work.

What's the nexus between The Diary of Anne Frank and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking? Both were scooped out of the literary rejection piles by famed Knopf editor Judith Jones and made into worldwide classics. Today, the 85-year-old Jones is working alongside a culinary figure of already-epic proportions -- she's edited and mentored Italian cooking legend Lidia Bastianich throughout the publication of her new cookbook, Lidia Cooks From the Heart of Italy, a collection of unusual recipes from lesser-known regions of Italy.

25 MORE PHOTOS: Drew Barrymore meets the Boston Derby Dames

The Brattle Theater is offering a free, first-come first-served screening tonight of DREW BARRYMORE's directorial debut, Whip It, starring Juno's Ellen Page as a "misunderstood small town teenager" who trades beauty pageants for hip-checks.

James Ellroy, the self-described demon dog of American crime fiction, has been pulling the same literary-Crazy-Eddie schtick for years -- he was doing it, for instance, way before Jim Cramer borrowed the act for Mad Money. The schtick is at once a useful mask and, at base, exactly what it appears to be: a meticulously cultivated, nakedly needy, vastly narcissistic self-promotional vehicle whose sole purpose is the further economic enrichment of James Ellroy.

Earlier this month, in a rare moment of media detente, Boston's finest film critics climbed onstage at the Brattle and talked b-movies, to promote DaCapo's new The B-List: The National Society of Film Critics on Low Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love. Amazingly, even though Jay Carr was on the panel, the Globe's Ty Burr, the Herald's James Verniere, and the Phoenix's own Peter Keough were able to get a few words edgewise.

Four women from Harvard Book Store stood at the back of the Brattle Theater last night, before the crowds arrived, giggling. “I have the biggest literary crush on him,” said one, referring to the evening’s reader — MIT professor, Boston Review fiction editor, Pulitzer Prize-winner — Junot Díaz, a man, it appeared from listening to the women’s chatter, with many charms.