The Forgery of Venus, a thriller from Michael Gruber. (Watch for an excerpt coming Sunday.)
The Boat, stories from Nam Le
Shakespeare's Wife, biography from Germaine Greer
Beyond UFOS:The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future, by Jeffrey Bennett
American Nerd: The Story of My People, a combination of history and memoir by Benjamin Nugent.

Along those lines, here's an interview that Hillel Itale of the Associated Press conducted with James Frey:

The Chronicles were first published in this order:
1) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 2) Prince Caspian, 3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 4) The Silver Chair, 5) The Horse and His Boy, 6) The Magician's Nephew and 7) The Last Battle.

But if you go to the bookstore or Amazon and buy a boxed set, you'll find they've been rearranged, and are now published in chronological order according to the timeline set forth in the books. That order is:
1) The Magician's Nephew, 2) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 3) The Horse and His Boy, 4) Prince Caspian, 5) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6) The Silver Chair and 7) The Last Battle.

So which is right? Purists insist on published order -- that if you read The Magician's Nephew first, you'll find out all sorts of things you're just not supposed to know yet. Others say that if you're looking for the biblical themes and allusions in the books, those become much clearer in a chronological reading. Lewis himself, in a letter published in 1957, said either one was fine with him, although he expresssed just a smidgen of a preference for published order.

What do you think? Discuss.

(You can still read our review and an excerpt from the book.)

I wrote Joe Nick and asked him how the book is doing. Here's some of what he had to say:

Sure, it's just a big promotion. But it's nice to see a legendary children's book character get a place of honor at a $1,000-a-night hotel. (For that price, I assume they throw in a set of books. And read them to you before the staff tucks you in and says night-night.)

For those of you planning ahead, here's the review of The Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England.

And here's a complete list of the evening's activities, provided by our friends at The Dallas Museum of Art:

Why am I telling you this now? Because tickets go on sale today.

Not surprisingly, given the topic, she has been generating some national attention, from the likes of the respected Bookslut blog and even Library Journal.

She discusses the book in this YouTube video. (The video itself is tame, but the related videos on that link are of a hide-the-kids variety.)

Yes, I thought so.

While avoiding the day's actual work, I found a link to this Slate.com article via Shelf Awareness that should make us all feel better about ourselves. It's their look at "Great Novels About Wasting Time." Specifically, that

"... small and unnerving category of literature that is not only about procrastination but that, in form and style, enacts the frenetic paralysis of irrational delay. The reader who procrastinates may discover the sharpest pleasures and horrors of recognition within the tangled, meandering sentences in these slender volumes--detour-clogged journeys that go around and around in crooked, tortured circles as they strenuously avoid their destinations."

At The New York Times, Janet Maslin raved (while mimicking his style:)

"He got a second act. He got another chance. Look what he did with it. He stepped up to the plate and hit one out of the park. No more lying, no more melodrama, still run-on sentences still funny punctuation but so what. He became a furiously good storyteller this time."

At the Los Angeles Times, David L. Ulin ripped it:

" Bright Shiny Morning is a terrible book. One of the worst I've ever read. But you have to give James Frey credit for one thing: He's got chutzpah. "

The lucky thinkers for 2008-09 are:

So this is one form of reading material that I am not disappointed to learn is being supplanted by the Internet. (I still enjoy reading about pending books, mind you; I personally find the book catalog an inefficient way to learn about upcoming material.)

Hillel Itale explains:

The Writer's Garret says: "Prof. Dickson- Carr will define some of the key terms needed to understand what satire is and is not, and will offer a brief outline of satire's place in African American literature. Open and interactive discussion will then explore why satire has waxed and waned at different points in time, and why it is especially important now."

"I'm not a blog man," he said in his melodious brogue. "I've read two in my life. I really don't like to be sequestered in a room with a screen. I'd rather sit in a bar and listen to some guy uttering platitudes. You need time to think for yourself; I can't absorb it all anymore. A book is enough, and a bar."

Thank you, Texas Pages readers, for feeling otherwise. At least now and then.

(But if anyone has suggestions on how we can move this whole enterprise to a bar where I can get paid to utter platitudes ... I am all ears.)