Girl x 45 Million

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy has become" the publishing phenomenon of the young century, with international sales exceeding 45 million," according to a very cool story in today's Los Angeles Times by my former colleague Scott Timberg.

He writes that Larsson's books have managed, in the 25 months since the first novel's U.S. publication, to go through almost 200 printings here. And next month, publisher Knopf will release its Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Sara Nelson, books director of O: The Oprah Magazine, told Timberg that the heroine's ambiguity is part of her appeal. "She's not terribly well defined," Nelson says, pointing to her complicated sexuality. "Is she lovable? Yes, but she's not necessarily likable. Lisbeth is a hybrid, but the books are hybrids too — a chronicle of the media business, a comment on society.... It's not a standard police procedural."

UPDATE: Here's the link to the NYT's review of the Hornet's Nest movie.

(Illustration by Helena Lloyd.)

Escape Reading

Hello everyone. I finished two freelance pieces and now I'm rewarding myself with an afternoon escape -- reading about Paris. My latest book about my favorite city is called "The Secret Life of the Seine" by Mort Rosenblum, former Editor in Chief of the International Herald Tribune. Rosenblum lived for a time on a 54-foot boat made of Burmese teak and brass, tied up alongside the barges near the Pont Alexandre II in the center of Paris.

This is what I call escape reading. Without it, life would be so dreary.

What's your favorite escape book?

(Photo by Miu37)

What are you reading?

It's my seasonal question...



At the moment I'm reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom (love it...and yes he is all that!)
Next, I plan to read Ken Follett's "Fall of Giants." (It's nearly 1,000 pages long. It could be my winter and spring reading too!)
In between: I'm studying James Beard's On Bread. (One of my cousins recently gave me an awesome starter, renewing my quest to make the perfect loaf of bread.)

So what are you reading!?


Photo above by Allister Ann via Lomography.com.

(Some of your previous responses here on the EM reading list.)

Is Jonathan Franzen all that?

The Franzen frenzy started a month ago when TIME magazine put the author on its cover and labeled him the "Great American Novelist." I finally have a copy of his new book, Freedom. (My reading this weekend). I'm anxious to see if he's really all that.

Any thoughts?

(Illustration above by Joe Ciardiello for Barnes and Noble Review.)

Penguin Classics (Red) Editions

So, here's my latest obsession: UK Penguin's (Red) Editions....



I love the text snippets on the covers. It makes the classics seem so current and, well, sexy.

You can see the entire set on the UK Penguin website.

It's for a good cause: a portion of the money raised from the sale of the books goes to help fight AIDS in Africa.

Electronic Books or Hardcovers?

Amazon.com officials announced this week that the company now sells more e-books in its online marketplace than hardcovers.

So I wanted to ask....

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Damn Dan Brown

The literary blogosphere continues to buzz with angst and dismay as thousands -- or maybe even millions -- of people learned the shocking news this week that they write like ...Dan Brown. The growing outrage -- sparked by a computerized prose analysis on a obscure website called "I Write Like" -- could be the biggest controversy involving Brown since the release of his insanely successful but widely reviled book, The Da Vinci Code. (BTW, Audrey Tautou was lovely as Sophie in the movie version.)

In a move that some hoped would calm the fears, the NYT's Paper Cuts blog weighed in on the controversy Thursday with a post titled "I Write Like...Yeah Right."

"I entered my last blog post and was told I write like Edgar Allan Poe," NYT blogger Jennifer Schuessler wrote. "Pretty neat. But then a colleague plugged in a paragraph from Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” and was told it sounded like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."

One reader commented: "Thank you for debunking that. It told me I write like Dan Brown,
and I almost killed myself."

Brown, meanwhile, has gone into seclusion after learning that he writes like Jane Austen.

PS: Only parts of this post are true. The rest is fiction. I would like to dedicate it to Jonas (I hope you've gotten that dreadful program to finally give you Hemingway.)

Also, I have no idea who did the cartoon -- now floating freely about the Internet. (Email if you know the source.)

I write like...Kurt Vonnegut??

My friend Carolyn Kellogg at the LA Times' fantastic Jacket Copy book blog had the most clever post today. She found a website -- called I Write Like -- where you can enter a few paragraphs of your prose to find out if you write like Hemingway, Chuck Palahniuk or even Bram Stoker. (There are a bunch of other authors ranging from Stephen King to J.K. Rawlings).

Take the five-second test and let me know here how it goes!

If you write like Jane Austen, you win a special prize -- a date with Colin Firth! (Joking.)

I was surprised to learn that I write like Kurt Vonnegut. I had no idea Mr. Vonnegut used so many exclamation points in his prose, but I applaud him!!

xo


(Above photo found at F--- Yeah, Kurt Vonnegut! on Tumblr.)

Which Books Changed Your World?

I guess it's officially books week on the English Muse...


There's a major trending topic sweeping Twitter at the moment: #booksthatchangedmyworld.
It made me stop and think. The book that most changed my world was Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", because I finally understood that it didn't take a lot of money to live well.

What about you?


PS: Check out the twitter stream on the subject. The answers range from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the Great Gatsby!


Also, the above photo is from here.

Have a lovely Wednesday and HAPPY BLOOMSDAY!

UPDATE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: Susan Orlean, one of my favorite New Yorker writers, is the one who started the Twitter hashtag! More about it on the New Yorker's website.

What are you reading this summer?

Summer books are the best kind, I think. They're meant to be read simply for the some decadent pleasure. Recently when I was reading the liner notes on my dad's Fountains of Rome album, I noticed several quotes from a Bloomsbury Group writer, Elizabeth Bowen. In 1960 she published a book called "A Time in Rome." She makes the city sound magic.

A sampling:

It was April. The idle yet intense air smelled of honey; Rome shimmered below with hardly a stir, and bluer than the sky were the Alban hills....

and this:

It is impossible, in spring, to walk too often on the Appian Way,
under the cumulus piling into the blue...

I found a used copy of "A Time in Rome" on Amazon.com. It arrived yesterday, and I'm so excited to get started on it. I'm also reading another delicious book, "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes," by Elizabeth Bard. It's very clever and funny.

Speaking of Paris, I wanted to tell you some exciting news: A high school student from Paris will be spending most of the summer with us! I'm busily fixing up our extra room for her now. She's coming to perfect her English, and we're looking forward to learning French. Her name is Emma. We can't wait to meet her in person! I will keep you posted on her arrival.

Meanwhile, back to my original question:

What are you reading this summer?

xo

PS: Above photos from here.

Ta-da!! English Muse Reading List Updated!

A week or so ago, I asked everyone what they were reading. And now, with all your responses reviewed (and savored), I'm happy to announce that the official English Muse reading list on Amazon has been updated! It's in no particular order and there are now more than 160 books on the list. But I think it reflects the breadth and depth of your interests. I feel very, very lucky to have such smart readers.

Many among us are Janeites, of course! But you're also interested in a mix of modern literature, current affairs (like the treatment of women in the Middle East) and the gorgeous and colorful culture of India. My little graphic above -- featuring model Karlie Kloss from the August 09 issue of French Vogue -- includes a list of all the books on my nightstand at the moment.

My wish for you for this holiday is that you have plenty of time to read whatever you find interesting, beautiful and thought provoking.

Here's our Amazon link: English Muse wishlist.

xoxo

What books are you reading?

And which books do you want for Christmas?

I figured it was time to update the English Muse reading list....

 

So please leave your answers on this post...

And I'll report back with everyone's favorites later this week!

PS: I usually read a couple books at once....so now I'm reading Once on a Moonless Night by Dai Sijie and Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith...

Photo credits {here}

Arianna Huffington's Book Hallway

Arianna Huffington lives in a beautiful Mediterranean-style estate on Los Angeles' Weststide.  Every time I visit her house, I always end up here, in this hallway where she stacks the public affairs books that arrive daily in her mailbox. (Spotted today: The Wealth of Networks, the J Curve and The Blue Way.)

At the end of the hallway there's a set of French doors:

...covered with postcards...

Love.

Women Writers in Photo

Hello Readers of English Muse,

I am Maggie May from Flux Capacitor, married to my love Mr. Curry with whom I have three children- Dakota, Ian and Lola. I am a novelist and poet, so I thought it fitting that my guest blog be full of photos of amazing, fascinating women writers. Let's begin with Queen Poet, Sylvia Plath, and this lovely color photo of her and her children, Frieda and Nicholas. Look at her hair, the braids! I wonder if they're real? Did they even have fake braids back then?

This is Marguriete Duras, the French novelist. I found my first of her novels in a pee smelling used book store and fell in love with her surrealist, gorgeous, engrossing style. She wrote ' The Lover ' , a novel based on her life experience that was turned into an erotic and gorgeous movie. She was a beautiful woman, with a lovely wide brimmed hat here!

I can't tell you who this is! She's the makings of many a post on my blog, my newest hero and obsession....

Anne Sexton! I remember the first time I read the Collected Works...I was in heaven. Her subject matters are nothing less than life, sex, love and death (what else is there? really-) and her poetry is so interesting, so passionate, so good to the brain. She was gorgeous and mysterious and gave readings to throngs of women who were feminists or becoming so. She inspired us and she showed us a way to self expression. She wrote a wonderful poem about women, ' Her Kind '

The glorious, brilliant Joyce Carol Oates. Ah. I remember reading ' We Were the Mulvaney's ' and feeling intimidated: Holy Hell! How could I ever hope to measure up the scope of information on human life in this novel! And so I fell in love. Her novels are a.ma.zing. She has a terrifiyingly human and tactile grasp on life, on our experiences and the ways we fail, the ways we love. I think she looks like a silent film star! Of course, this picture is from the sixties.

Reading...

Hello Everyone, I love the Penguin UK edition of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. (Their cover design is always marvelous.) The story was originally written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of my all time favorite authors.

Meanwhile, I wanted to tell you that I put together an Amazon list of some of the books you're reading. Thank you all for your comments on the "Got Books?" post. You inspire me!

Your list here!

And the original post. (Let me know if you want to add any books to the list.)

Got Books?

What are you reading these days?



(Illustration via Lolita.)

Lucky Day

What kind of book do you want to write?

From Annabelle, of My Life...In To Do Lists, in Australia: "Haha I love it! I'd love to write a memoir of my life at about 60 years of age, I hope to have lived a lot by then!"

From Sara, of One Long Road,  in Cairo: "A reflective, contemplative autobiography!
one that would represent my culture in the context of being Egyptian :) "

(Photo credit: I Heart It.)

Inside My Inspiration File

In an effort to keep magazines and newspapers from taking over my house, yard and garage, I started clipping my favorite articles and pictures for an inspiration file about five years ago. Now, the file has grown to (at least) several boxes. I wanted to give you a little look inside.

Here are some of the things I pulled out randomly today: A story from the New York Times magazine on lipstick queen Poppy King; A photograph of colored shirts (Great Gatsby, anyone?) in Real Simple; My dream desk, flanked by books and Hermes boxes; There's an Elle magazine book page, which is always excellent. The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg is featured. (Bragg once asked me out on a date, many moons ago); There's a picture of Hayden Panettiere in the ultimate Burberry coat and an inspiration board featured in the April 2008 issue of Domino magazine (don't get me started on how much I already miss Domino); From Bazaar, there's a Fashionable Life profile of Isabel Toledo. And my favorite: A watercolor of a pink coat (from a review of "Drawing Fashion: The Art Kenneth Paul Block.") As usual my eye is drawn to anything pink.

If Anaïs Nin....

...had a Nikon D3 camera...

...Her photos might look a lot like Deborah Anderson's. Check out the website of the incomparable photographer, daughter of the legendary lead singer of the band Yes. Deborah's book "Paperthin" is a modern take on 1930s Parisian erotica. Sizzling.

By the way,
the second picture is of Deborah, taken by Dennis Hopper, a subject of hers.
Here's a story I did this week about her work.

Stairway to Heaven

Would you rather have a circular staircase built of iron and stone?


Or a staircase lit by windows?


Or a staircase lined with books? (Or all of the above!) Another beautiful dilemma.

Comment from the lovely Jonathan Gold: "As the custodian of a grand staircase lined with books, I can attest that it feels less like aesthetic triumph than it does like a major organizational failing - I wasn't sure how to react when a friend told me this afternoon how much the house reminded her of the Please Don't Eat the Daisies set, which I suppose makes me David Niven. It does photograph well, though."

(Photo credits: Urban Chill, Stewardesses and Abracadabra.)