The Complete Quarterly has an ENDLESS wrap-up of the year in books and culture (in brief: they're con on Eggers and Ashcroft, and think Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri probably shouldn't be referred to as an "exotic beauty" any more. Go figger). Writer-interviewer and curmudgeon Robert Birnbaum gives some predictions for literature in 2004:
· Amazon will open its first super store in Salt Lake City.
· Chris Hitchens and Henry Kissinger will meet face to face. Since I can't predict the time of day, I can only suggest their ensuing tête-à-tête will be, uh, newsworthy.
· The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox will meet in the World Series. Cubs in six.
· Laura Miller will become the editor of the New York Times Book Review.
· Mario Vargas Llosa will win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
· George Bush will not be elected President. Neither will Howard Dean.
· Elmore Leonard will publish another spiffy novel.
· Someone will finally publish an English language biography of Karl Kraus.
· Web-based magazines will start to make money- but not Salon.com and not the dreary offshoots of media conglomerates and their co-opted sellout hot shots.
Year End Panel [Complete Review, via TMFTML]

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