This week: more Dan Brown, writers groups in Second Life, former presidential candidates turning to fiction, plus your pick-me-up, after the jump.

The bumblefuck over Dan Brown’s new The Lost Symbol continues. Now that everyone has had time read it (which apparently can be done in less than an hour), the reports are flooding in: a) it sucks and b) it gets absolutely everything about Washington DC horribly wrong (source: everywhere) and c) it sucks. Also, someone analyzes Dan Brown’s 20 worst sentences of all time. I’m not sure how to feel about all this. I am not a fan of Dan Brown (understatement), and it’s a pain that The Lost Symbol is distracting readers and publishers alike from all the other good fiction being released right now (understatement). But at least the general public is getting excited over books again..right?

Speaking of shlock, John Grisham freely admits that what he writes is not actually literature.

The question is posed, again: is the Internet melting our brains? The answer is, again: no.

If you’re too busy to join a writer’s group in real life, perhaps one in Second Life will do?

The Owls is an interesting new site focused on collaborative writing.

Remember that thing I said about all Free Library of Philadelphia branches closing? Just kidding.

Ralph Nader: consumer crusader, presidential candidate, novelist.

And now your pick-me-up: Nabokov edits (and doodles on) Kafka, via World of Found.