various sorts of bookish news

I've been procrastinating the headlong and furious writing of the last pages of my novel by bloghopping, and am pleased to offer the following gleanings:
Book Kitten says that Nicole Kidman is going to play the beautiful and evil Mrs. Coulter in the movie of The Golden Compass (1st book of Philip Pullman's trilogy).
I found some great pictures of writers' homes posted by Danielle at A Work in Progress--from a book, American Writers at Home. I am envious of Mark Twain's library that opens into a conservatory--two of my obsessions in close proximity.
Here's a wonderful bit of witty dialogue from Dorothy Sayers's Strong Poison, which I read (although not for the 1st time) on Kate's Book Blog:
‘Well, I wouldn’t have the muck in the house,’ said the Captain, firmly. ‘I caught Hilda with it, and I said, “Now you send that book straight back to the library.” I don’t interfere, but one must draw the line somewhere.’
‘How did you know what it was like?’ asked Wimsey, innocently.
‘Why James Douglas’s article in the Express was good enough for me,’ said Captain Bates. ‘The paragraphs he quoted were filthy—positively filthy.’
‘Well, it’s a good thing we’ve all read them,’ said Wimsey. ‘Forewarned is forearmed.’
‘We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Press,’ said the Dowager Duchess; ‘so kind of them to pick out all the plums for us and save us the trouble of reading the books, don’t you think, and such a joy for the poor dear people who can’t afford seven and sixpence, or even a library subscription.’ ***
The Master Procrastinator Award to Samuel Johnson, who became overwhelmed with the work required to put together his famous dictionary. He completely stopped working on it for a while (possibly several years). New research suggests that it was "only a threat to break into his house and seize the manuscript - which the publishers mistakenly thought was almost finished"-- which got Johnson back to work." Read the article here (I found this 1st in Maud Newton.)
Cleveland's independent bookstores have a website that maybe everyone else knows about, but which was new to me.
Here's an interview with Charles D'Ambrosio on Bookslut. His last collection of stories is called The Dead Fish Museum, and even if I didn't already love his work I would have wanted to read it because of that title. My sister will know what I mean. ****
There's a One Book meme going around--one book that changed your life, one book you'd take to a desert island, etc. I've read several, all interesting, but my favorite so far was from Mark at The Elegant Variation--check it out here.

***this is the 2nd time I've borrowed from Kate--I hope she'll forgive me for being such a mooch.
****for a wellwritten review of one of the stories in Dead Fish, see Plan B.