San Francisco Chronicle books editor Oscar Villalon is leaving the paper, having taken a buyout. Buyouts have been looming at the paper, which has been suffering from worsening financial woes along with other major dailies throughout the country. Villalon’s last day will be Friday, and it is expected that deputy book editor Regan McMahon will now oversee the section, one of only a handful of print standalone book review sections still running. Villalon’s departure leaves McMahon as the only full-time staffer handling books. (from )

I really like Oscar—he’s an incredibly funny and sincere guy—and it sucks to see this happen. More true than ever thought that the days of extensive (and non-wire) book coverage in local newspapers are quickly becoming a thing of the past . . .

Of course most of the books features are the “big” titles—like Alice Sebold’s latest, which is destined to be the kind of crap that I mentioned earlier—with international fiction getting basically no play, but whatever. We’ll take care of that in ensuing weeks. At least there’s some good football information in Oscar’s column. Personally, I’m drinking the 49rrs Kool-aid this year . . .