Borat to Write Travel Guide

Reuters reports that comedian and ersatz native of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen, aka: "Borat" will write a "travel guide" to his native country - which would be the U.K. of course, no, make that the satirical version of Kazakhstan. The levels of smarmy irony are so numerous here, that quotation marks need to be bracketed in more quotation marks ad infinitum. Borat makes Colbert's comedy seem frank and straightforward. Baron Cohen's comedy is so convoluted that it's hard to know who should be offended sometimes. Booklist's blogger weighs in on whether the comedian's style will work in print as well as it did on film.

And in related "stan" news, blogger Kier Graff, compiles a list of books with"-stan" in the title, a mini-trend, not yet quite a genre, but still notable in a way that makes one cringe at the thought of where this could lead. If you have ideas, let Mr. Graff know.

Annistan...