Tuesday gleanings

1. We begin today with a salute to Michael Atkinson. Though best known as a film critic, M.A. is a pleasure to read on the "life literary" as well. If you haven't read it already, dig into this great piece about other people's bookmarks.

Well...I shouldn't be coy: Mike's dismissal by the Voice last week, where he's long been one of the smartest—and most entertaining—critics, is the latest Really Dumb Thing to happen there. He's one of those writers whose least article is something of an education; for a sampling of premium Atkinson, check out his fine collection, Ghosts in the Machine. (He also wrote on Blue Velvet for the BFI series.)

2. Numerous (well, two!) people have been mentioning Sam Lipsyte's piece on meeting Houellebecq, up now at the Believer site (and hopefully soon in a mailbox near you).

3. Floating around soon: Issue #2 of The New-York Ghost. Visit the spartan site, or just send an e-mail to thenyghost@gmail.com to get on the list of this free gazette, "designed to be read in a single sitting!"

4. Via Light Reading, nifty Guardian piece on Pete Doherty and poetry. (N.B., I like how his name contains the letters for "poetry.")