Borders recently launched its new website, which features the Magic Shelf, the latest riff on online book shopping. I haven't had time to poke around yet, but it's clear that Borders is taking a decidedly simpler, less statistic-cluttered approach than Amazon.

The Magic Shelf has some interesting features that might play better with a large indie like Powell's. For example, the Staff Recommend shelf seems like a good idea; that's the first section I go to when visiting a good indie store. But at Borders, who really knows who the staff is? On the Magic Shelf, you pass your cursor over the recommended titles and you only get typical publisher blurbs on the books — no staff reviews. But still, it's interesting to see a new twist in online selling.

See if you can find the artspacetokyo.com reference buried in this New York Times blog. It's official: we exist in the eyes of the gray lady!

John Gall, designer of many beautiful book jackets has been interviewed by Barnes and Noble. We get to see his face, hear his voice and peek in on his office — all good fun for fans of his work.

If you're in NYC this weekend, Andrew WK (!!!) will be reading at McNally Robinson on Sunday at 12:30. He'll be reading from the new Paul Frank (clothing designer) children's book, Only in Dreams. More information on the event here. Very sadly I'll be out of the city. On a side note: I've been doing the Manhattan bookshop rounds and McNally Robinson is coming out on the top of my list. If you live in the city and haven't been, I dare you to go, take a seriously look around and not leave with something. They don't have that much shelf space but what they do have is fantastic — and all the better. It reminds me of an expanded Intelligent Idiot (was in the old Las Chicas complex) in that I want most everything they have.

Ever since journalism school, I've tried to weave that word "newshole" into my prose whenever possible. So I was happy to find a piece by David Milofsky of the Denver Post that, while not actually using the word itself, dealt with the painful process of soliciting reviews for your books.

The picture Milofsky paints for newspaper reviews is bleak: a shrinking newshole + thousands and thousands of books = NY firms with muscle get reviewed; small presses usually don't. But then the situation online is far more promising. Online reviews are getting better, and there are plenty of sites devoted to the lit world. A relatively new one is the Barnes & Noble Review, which runs a new 1,000-word review every weekday. Another new entry is the online version of the Kenyon Review, which dedicates a section of its site to book reviews.

Expect more online activity around books. The quickly shrinking newshole (last usage, promise) for literary matters and the skyrocketing supply of books point to plenty of room for growth in litblogs, online reviews et cetera.

A lot of the publishing industry newsletters I get in my inbox these days are either geared toward companies many, many times bigger and more profitable than Chin Music or stuck in the Old World of publishing, only acknowledging the digital shift we're in by mentioning the Kindle or some other Amazon item. Bookhitch.com's newsletter is different. It is very relevant to the Chin Musics of the world and anyone else who is trying to grasp just where this industry is headed.

Consider this brief wrap up of the latest newsletter: The opening piece contained a smattering of opinions on Amazon's controversial move to demand that publishers use its on-demand printer. The responses ranged from outraged to resigned. but nobody felt this was a smart move on Mr. Bezos' part. This kind of strong-arming is going to come back to bite him. Here's one comment:

"“I have asked my assistant to delete all my Amazon affiliate links on my nine websites, and have asked Amazon to pay any outstanding commissions because I am terminating my affiliate relationship after 12 years. And I'm trying to figure out how to notify the 70+ people in my list of Facebook friends who are marketers that if they want me to participate in best-seller campaigns, they have to offer a non-Amazon alternative (I did one the other day that offered a choice of Amazon, BN, or Powell's; I went through Powell's and it felt great)."

The piece is comprehensive and timely.

The next thing that caught my eye was one that focused on Harper Collins' plan to start an imprint that offers writers no royalties but also accepts no returns from bookstores. Fascinating. The newsletter contained an interview with an industry insider that said the idea was preposterous and a terrible way to go if you're a writer because you will end up making a lot less: "How’s zero sound? Because that’s what most authors make on royalties…even authors who are strong mid-list producers, even those who have name cache and a dozen titles in print. Publishers are good at either pushing a book into the market or leaving it to languish. One of the primary signals they send can be measured by how many zeroes are in the advance."

The rest of the newsletter talked about JK Rowlings' copyright case, what will happen if Barnes & Noble buys Borders (answer: not much), selling books for charity and the prospect of book rentals (like a Netflix for books). All interesting and well-written. And free, I might add.

Roland Kelts contributed an excellent piece on Takashi Murakami for our Art Space Tokyo collection at about the same time he was finishing up a piece on Haruki Murakami for Stonebridge Press' A Wild Haruki Chase. In this piece for the Japanese Writers' House, he compares and contrasts the two. They are both fascinating characters, and like so much in Japan these days, they can't be completely understood without examining their relationship with the United States.

Roland's profile here is one of about fifty illustrations by Nobumasa Takahashi in Art Space.

We've been translating the weekly columns of Minoru Morita for over a year now, and we're putting the finishing touches on his first English book, Curing Japan's America Addiction (out this summer). He's an inspiring man, a Japanese mix of Lewis Lapham and Howard Zinn, effortlessly mixing in quotes by everyone from Confucius to Pascal as he debunks the idea that Junichiro Koizumi's structural reforms were beneficial. In fact, he sees them as the final blow against Japan's 100-million middle class, sadly a thing of the past.

I recently wrote a short piece on Morita's ability to use all media to get his message out. If you're interested, drop by japaninfusion.com for a peek.

Benji Lanyado of the Guardian in the UK had a great piece on contemporary art in Japan and our brand new little book, Art Space Tokyo. I'm sure Craig will have more to say about this later, but he and Ashley are pounding the pavement in New York this week, introducing the book to bookstores, galleries and just about everyone they meet.

For the record, Craig is the fellow on the left, and Ashley on the right, in the article's photo.

David on the 37 signal blog has a nice little post about the effects of sleep deprivation on productivity, morale and creativity. I completely agree with his sentiments.

In the crunch period of Art Space Tokyo production, Ashley had actually moved into my room and we were working 15 hour days. Since I knew the crunch period was going to last several weeks, I made sure, like some sort of goofy father figure, that we would sleep at least 8 hours a night. This meant our sleep schedule was 4am 'till noon, but it worked, and we were able to maintain close to peek productivity the entire time.

Had we forgone a few hours of sleep each night would we have gotten the book done quicker? I don't think so. As it was, we were close to our threshold for extended periods of focus and if anything, I think cutting out a couple hours a night would have hurt the end result, not pushed it along more quickly.

Sometimes you have to pull an all nighter though. I've found that nothing helps one recover from sleep deprivation like having a healthy, strong, balanced body. The past year or so I've increased the amount of regular exercise I do, significantly decreased alcohol intake and try to eat reasonably healthy. I find that I can pull a 36 hour work period without feeling too worn down. Whereas, 3 or 4 years ago, that would have killed me.

Some people swear by napping — I used to nap all the time. But give me eight hours of sleep a night and I can keep going all day.

That is all.