Travis Elborough writes spendidly for the Picador blog about the paranoia that three-for-two deals can induce in authors: "Perhaps your sales and publicity material included the line: 'This author is highly third-choiceable'. You may have thought it was the usual marketing guff when you first read it. However, at parties you've suddenly discovered that people can only remember what they bought with your book rather than your book per se."

• There are books that are impossible to put down; and then there are books that are sickening to pick up.

• Noah Deutch of The Millions reckons "trope" is the new "meme". Do you think, influential readers, that we could make "ploy" the new "trope"? Stephen Potter's memory is owed nothing less.

• Great book-signing humiliations, episodes 347 and 348, via Maud Newton's bewilderingly good-link-rich Twitter feed.

• Dave Eggers on children and print.