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This weekend is the Newburyport Book Festival in Newburyport, MA. Author Andre Dubus III will be attending along with Caroline Leavitt, Jenna Blum, Hallie Ephron, Wally Lamb, Jessica Keener, Claire Messud, and many more. The festival was founded in 2005 and has steadily grown into a wonderful literary event. What are your plans for the weekend? Here are some interesting Lit Links from around the web.

15 Most Expensive Books in the World.

Trip to the Library = Happiness.

Writing advice from James Patterson.

Third Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Movie.

Amazon’s 100 Best Thrillers and Mysteries to Read in a Lifetime.

Alicia Silverstone Pens Parenting Book.

J.K. Rowling’s CASUAL VACANCY Miniseries.

Reading 100 years of bestsellers.

The best time to write.

Edgar Allen Poe statue coming to Boston.

The Junglebook coming to the big screen in live action form.

Six Degrees of Education.

What books are you planning on diving into this weekend? Any exciting plans? I am hopefully finishing up the Pulitzer Prize winning THE GOLDFINCH and then jumping into ASTONISH ME by Maggie Shipstead. We are also gearing up for the Boston Marathon that will be broadcast on Monday. Here are a few interesting literary links from around the web…

Books that grab from page one according to Kirkus.

Great interview with Judy Blume for American Libraries Magazine.

Donna Tartt “surprised” by Pulitzer for The Goldfinch.

Editor with string of hits is joining Little, Brown.

7 Brilliant Ways Authors Build Buzz.

World Read Aloud Day.

A literary couple at home.

Flatiron Books to publish Oprah in September.

ROOM by Emma Donoghue headed to the big screen.

21 female authors you should be reading. Will ReadWomen2014 change our collective reading habits?

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Stephen Elliot, author of the books Happy Baby and The Adderal Diaries, is the founding editor of the online literary magazine, The Rumpus. He hopes in the age of email, twitter and texting, that people will still like to receive a letter now and again or “snail mail.”

Letters in the Mail is his new venture, in which for $5 a month, subscribers will receive three to four letters from people like author Dave Eggers, comedian Margaret Cho, graphic novelist Dean Haspiel and novelist and TV producer, Jonathan Ames. The first letter comes from Elliot himself.

But what’s inside these letters are actually very short stories. Already 1,500 people have subscribed in a matter of weeks. Elliot was inspired by the Brooklyn outfit One Story, which send one story per week for $21 a year.

The letters are made to look authentic by having doodles, real signatures and return addresses. Just sign up and they’ll be in a mailbox near you.

Not surprisingly, Jonathan Franzen is not a fan of the new technology craze in the publishing industry. Franzen spoke recently at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Columbia, and weighed in on his perception of ebooks vs. traditional printed literature.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” Franzen said, during a press conference at the Festival in which he spoke about a number of different topics including President Obama, the financial system and the lack of Religion in his work and he also had plenty to say about the future of the book.

“Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing – that’s reassuring.”

Jonathan Franzen has a forthcoming book of essays “Farther Away” coming out in April. The title piece is his reflections on the suicide of his best friend and writer David Foster Wallace, who would have celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday.

In honor of Valentine’s day, The Huffington Post has compiled a list of the 10 best kisses in literature. From the romantic (Gone with the Wind) to the creepy (Lolita and Humbert) to the the innocent (Callie’s first kiss with her friend Clementine in Middlesex,)  this list has a little of bit of everything for everyone.

So Happy Valentine’s Day to all the book lovers out there!

People love books. Some people show their love by recommending books to friends and family members, others start websites to share their love of stories to the world. There are also people out there who want to show their love for their favorite books daily, wherever they go, to whomever they meet. Publishers Weekly found the top five books that inspired the most tattoos. This is devotion.

5. Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk

Fight club resonates with people who are anti-authority and Tyler Durden is their hero. This one tattoo is an iconic image because Tyler was, among other things, a soap maker.

4. The Little Prince by Antoine  de Saint-Exupery

The watercolor images inspire many tattoos but also the appreciation of the world’s beauty and wonder. This tattoo is of the prince himself.

3. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

This book reminds us of our childhoods and we grow up so fast, that maybe it’s a symbol of who we were as children: wild, carefree and full of imagination. This is tattoo is of Max in his iconic wolf outfit.

2. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

There are a lot of tattoos of Alice in Wonderland out there. There are quotes, images and the cast of characters are depicted frequently: Alice, The Mad Hatter and especially the Cheshire Cat. Here is a depiction of the tree, the cheshire cat and a few other characters.

1. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnetgut

This classic novel of war and time travel resonates with people in the mantra “So It Goes,” which represents the owner’s coping with worry or loss. Here is a tattoo of the mantra on someone’s wrist, which is where people usually get the tattoo, oddly enough.

Here are some interesting literary links from around the web. Author news, interviews, opinion pieces and tips for writers, readers and anyone interested in the world of publishing. Enjoy!

Authors Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books – WSJ

On the Road with Jonathan Franzen – PW

Why You Should Blog – Tribal Writer

Danielle Steel Says She’s NOT a Romance Writer – Media Bistro’s Galleycat

Blackberry Unveils Their E-Reader, The Playbook – Blackberry

Ann Patchett Talks About Plot – WSJ

Can You Resubmit A Query? – KT Literary

Teen Fiction Cafe – great collaboration site of YA writers

The Story Siren – YA Book Reviews Central!

Jackson Pearce – YA writer and active blogger

Alyson Noel – Series favorite

Megan Kelley Hall – YA writer and anti-bullying activist

Books, Boys, Buzz – Inside look into the writing life of YA writers