Cathy Bryant wins worst sentence in this year’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which takes its name from the man who penned, “It was a dark and story night…” Her entry muses on whether—when mites are involved—eyes are really the window to the soul.

John Steinbeck’s son is “deeply troubled” by the execution of Marvin Wilson, who had an IQ of 61, last night. He criticized Texas’ appeals court for using the Of Mice and Men character Lennie in its rationale for the appeal ruling.

This week’s feline foray goes literary: a blog dedicated entirely to photos of writers and their kitties. Atwood, Burroughs, Bukowski, Colette, Foucault, Lessing, Sartre—cat lovers all. Our fave: Aldous Huxley and cat contemplating a brave new world.

A NYC artist has created a “visual library” by photographing people reading on the subway. Riders featured on the Underground New York Public Library blog have been spotted reading books such as Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays and Nietzche’s The Birth of Tragedy.

In Somaliland, an independent republic in Somalia, 70 percent of the population is under 30. Seeking an alternative for this age group to chewing khat or enlisting with al-Shabaab, Jama Musse Jama has started a book fair, now five years old.