Embarassment of riches

Two great recent finds:

• Robert Birnbaum's author interviews at Identity Theory.

A great literary website with more author interviews you can stick a shake at, the newest being a chitchat with Susan Orlean:

RB: Do you have any fears about people stopping reading?

SO: No. That seems like it is never-ending—the form might keep changing in terms of how things are delivered but what you are talking about is basic human impulse to communicate. I just don't see how you could assume that would go away. And people will always, there will be people who will want to be communicated to and people who want to do the communicating. Whatever the form is, who knows?

• Don Swaim's audio interviews at Wired for Books.

Audio interviews with authors originally broadcast by CBS Radio in the 1980s and 90s. Swaim is a remarkably fluid interviewer and can switch gears and keep the conversation flowing with just about anyone. If you ever wanted to know what your favorite writer sounds like, here's your chance. John Barth speaks in long, elaborate sentences just like the college professor he is; Joyce Carol Oates often seems not to know exactly how to explain what she does; and two Stanley Elkin interviews reveal a slightly cantankerous individual (surprise, surprise).