Not everything that looks cynical is cynical. For example, it seems like everyone is doing a ‘young adult’ book of some kind. The cynical interpretation might be that, following the success of J.K. Rowling, now is a good time to do something (anything) YA. While that is, no doubt, true in a number of cases, it’s not always true.

One book I might have wondered about is the third anthology from the wacky folk at McSweeney’s who, having shown us their enchanted chamber and their mammoth treasury, now prepare to offer us A Book of Evil Marauders, Purple Blobs, and Some Other Things which contains lots of yummy YA goodness by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George Saunders and others. What I decided, in wondering whether this is a cynical exercise or not is that it doesn’t matter. I’m familiar with most of the authors’ who are in the book, and they don’t write cynically. And to be fair, it’s hard to see something like McSweeney’s Valencia St. project as a cynical exercise. Those are the things that matter. So, another cool book for the ‘to read’ pile. It should be very interesting reading.