Nice piece on the LRB blog from Christopher Tayler on rediscovering his unfashionable affection for Larry Niven.

• Scott Pack abuses the awesome power of the literary blogosphere to demand free biros, with mixed results. (Full disclosure: the company bunging him biros in that final link is part of the Guardian Media Group.)

• "Indirectly a cautionary work on the dangers of mixing self-medication and political theory." Which second-hand book do you think gets that description?

• Jenny Davidson on light – and more-than-light – reading for convalescence.

• Laura Miller on a reviewer's methods for book annotation. (Via.) I can never bring myself to do it, which leads to a great deal of flicking backwards and forwards at the last minute.