• James Gandolfini will play Ernest Hemingway in an untitled film slated to begin shooting in January.

• “The problem with [Dan Brown’s] ad hoc iconography is that readers of The Da Vinci Code may come to believe that by accepting the conventionally flimsy premises of a thriller plot, they have learned something about Leonardo and his art. Brown encourages this delusion by professing at the beginning of his book that what he says is true. But in this claim, as in the rest of his narrative, he is writing fiction.” (Via A&L Daily; somewhat related: literary cannibalism.)

• Do contemporary novels lack a sense of place? Also, is the novel dying? (Via Arts Journal.)

• Too Many Georges, a novel satirizing the Bush dynasty, is being published online.

• The story of New Jersey’s first poet laureate is ongoing at n + 1.

• Kyle Farley writes an open letter to a languishing dissertation.

• This week at Slate: “Notes from the National Scrabble Championship“

• “Cheap-ass books” are available online.