1. If you live in or near Chicago, please come see me at the Harold Washington Library Center next Thursday (July 23rd) at 11 AM. (I know that 11 AM is an unusual time for a meet-up and discussion, but hey, it's summer.) To preregister a seat, call the Department of Children and Young Adult Services at 312-747-4780.


2. I was very disappointed to learn that the Australian Productivity Commission has recommended lifting territorial copyright restrictions for Australian books. The issue is complicated, but it boils down to this: The productivity commission thinks books originally published in Australia should have to compete against American and British editions of those books, which will decimate Australian publishing.

In a truly free market economy, goods and services can travel without any kind of restrictions, and this makes prices cheaper for everyone. If books were like this, the theory goes, they'd be cheaper.

But of course no one has a free market economy. There are all kinds of things that corporations are not allowed to sell. Like heroin. As a community, we come together and decide that there are certain things corporations can't sell, because selling them--while good for the free market--would be bad for the community. (In this respect, credit default swaps on securitized loans are similar to heroin.) Territorial copyright is similar, I think: Australia might get slightly cheaper books, but there would be fewer (far fewer) Australian books by Australian authors.

And that would be a shame not only for Australia but also for me, because much of the best YA literature is being written in Australia. (Think Markus Zusak and Margo Lanagan and Sonya Hartnett and Garth Nix and Justine Larbalestier and on and on and on and on. And now imagine that some or all of those authors could never have gotten their start without an Australian publisher.)

3. If you don't know about Wizard Rock, Time Magazine gives you an education.