News: Restaurants, Books and Stuff

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells's bulldozing of Guy's American Kitchen and Bar rippled for a bit last week, leading to bandwagon-hopping pieces like this one, where a boatload of restaurant critics relate their experiences with negative reviews.

Meanwhile, a Japanese restaurant gets a bad review in the Guardian, and a LA Weekly food critic ran down Gordon Ramsay's Fat Cow.

No, I don't think it's getting trendy to bash restaurants, and I hope that never happens.

Since I'm on a food roll, here's a Ruth Reichl interview where she talks about food books and food culture.

Elsewhere:

• After books that essentially says "beware of (some) chefs" (Kitchen Confidential/) and "beware of (some) waiters" (Waiterrant), now there's "beware of (some) hotel clerks".
• Randall Sullivan's book on the "King of Pop" reveals a sad, tragic life.
• It seems the French publisher of Fifty Shades is cracking down on copycat titles, which it has termed "parasitical" ... isn't it just like the French to ramp up the drama? Nothing, however, has been said about the parodies and 'tributes' to Ms Erika Leonard's blockbuster trilogy that came out before the publication of the French edition, so I'm guessing those are in the clear.
• Merger II: Is HarperCollins interested in buying Simon & Schuster?
• JK Rowling and EL James left out of Bad Sex shortlist. Aww, too obvious, perhaps?
• Good self-published books? Here's how to find them.
• Woman arrested for "Liking" a Facebook post in "world's biggest democracy".
• Happy much-belated birthday to Parnassus Books, which some might know as "Ann Patchett's bookstore".

Also: Lydia Teh's Honk! If You're Malaysian is going for another print run, which will feature a redesigned cover. If this batch sells out, that means over 20,000 copies would be sold since it was first published in 2007. Will post a little bit more about this soon.