LINT by Arthur contributor Steve Aylett is on the shortlist for Spread the Word, a World Book Day poll to discover “The Book to Talk About, 2008″. Part of the poll includes online contributions. You can cast your vote here. (Not that we want to skew the results or anything…)

“I have received numerous emails and comments on this book, which doesn’t happen particularly often. All of them have said something along the lines of ‘I laughed aloud on the train’. Lint is ostensibly a biography of Jeff Lint, the best science fiction writer in the world. However, Jeff Lint is a figment of the author’s imagination. What Lint amounts to is a wry, comical parody of everything about pulp sci fi. Anyone who’s read any sci fi will find lots to laugh about. The book even features a plate section of Jeff Lint book covers – although, of course, these are fictional too. This is a rather unusual book in that it’s a fictional biography, and it has been described by SFX magazine thus in their 5 star review: “Lint is like manna from Mars, a jaw-to-the-floor comic masterpiece that will leave you giddy with excitement that it even exists… everyone holding this magazine should own two copies of Lint: one for themselves, one to fling in the face of their nearest foe.” I defy you to read a paragraph – any paragraph – and not laugh. Steve Aylett does things with words that bend your mind, and although this is comic fiction it is a rich and authoritative poke at pulp sci fi through the decades.”