Pre-Valentine's Day Round Up

1. 400th post!
2. Friday round up time, with Laura:

Hello, friends and foes, and welcome to just-about Valentine's Day (the most important of days). Have you bought me a present yet? Have you re-jiggered your diet to account for all of the candy you'll be inhaling? Have you decked out your homes in pink and red? If not, maybe you should spend less time Internet-ing and more time preparing for the third greatest consumer holiday America has to offer (trailing behind Christmas and Halloween, but firmly ahead of Fourth of July and Thanksgiving). Or you could not do any of those things—excepting buying me a present, that's mandatory—and read this round up. Either/or.

Are you in the mood for love? Perhaps you need these V-Day love poems, or this love advice from romance writers. Maybe you love the OED—I know I do—or are waiting to see how Jeffrey Eugenides deals with marriage. As for the kiddies, I hear they heart e-readers, and they can join the Lisa Simpson book club, the greatest of clubs.

Have you stolen someone's heart recently? I'll have you know that piracy is bad for New York, although it may be good for Neil Gaiman. If you are engaging in high seas piracy, you can always put that in your quirky author bio, and hope it doesn't lead to a literary fight.

If you do get in a famous fight, people might ask you to sign their e-readers, or host a BEA breakfast with Mindy Kaling. You might even get to stand next to Bristol Palin, memoirist at a book signing. Oh joyous day! The attention some get over others is baffling, as this discussion of Franzen v. Goodman shows.

So hey folks, go out and buy my presents, raise a glass to Brian Jacques, and remember: all the really sexy stuff is in the Bible.