Are readers (and writers) tired of novels? Over at salon.com is an intriguing article by columnist Laura Miller about David Shields' new work, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. In essence, Shields has written an anti-novel, and "the literary world is up in arms," according to Miller.  The book "defends plagiarism, champions faked memoirs and declares fiction dead."
    So, what does an anti-novel look like? Miller explains:

It contains a lot of passages cut and pasted from the work of other writers and artists. This technique, which Shields calls "literary mosaic," is meant to imitate hip-hop sampling and other kinds of musical appropriation.

    Literary traditions disappear with as much agony as they arrive. (Just look at what happened to poetry and short stories over the last twenty years.) Are you reading more and more non-fiction these days? Would you enjoy a literary "mash-up" like Reality Hunger? Is the novel as we know it coming to an end?