Start reading Franzen’s Freedom today

Just counting the days until the Decatur Book Festival? These should keep you busy.

-Decatur Book Festival keynote speaker might have written the most talked about novel in recent memory, but it isn’t officially out yet. If you can’t stand to wait patiently for Freedom now that even Obama has copy, there’s enough to online to keep you busy until tomorrow. As The Book Bench notes, The New Yorker has already published versions of the first two chapters, “Good Neighbors” and “Agreeable.”

If you’ve already read those excerpts or want something actually from the pages of Freedom, check out the sample from the audiobook below. It begins somewhat differently than “Good Neighbors” and occasionally drifts into parts of the story that were clearly edited out of the New Yorker piece.

- If you’re planning out a schedule of authors to see, be sure to check the cancellations and notices.

- Publisher of Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas, Featherproof, is holding a contest to destroy your copy of Scorch Atlas “better than any has destroyed before you.” Apparently, “The only way to truly finish Scorch Atlas was by destroying your copy.” People have burned it (a little obvious), shot arrows at it, and Butler even ate a few pages himself. The grand prize winner wins a copy of everything Featherproof has ever published along with a bunch of weird stuff, like a packet of Butler’s hair. Check out the contest details, and don’t forget to see him read at the Experimental Writer’s Asylum during the DBF.

- The Georgia Center for the Book just published a list of 25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read. Check it out.