Favorite books

This is a nice little site about celebrities' (actors, writers, etc.) favorite books as children. Some of the celebrities are more interesting than others; I liked Joyce Carol Oates's explanation of why she loved Lewis Carroll's Alice adventures. Of course, the more important part of First Book is that it encourages young people to read. More specifically, the organization gives books to children from low-income families. If I recall correctly, I interviewed the founder of this organization, back when I worked for a national trade journal about nonprofit organizations. I've not really kept up with them, but they seem to have done ok.

What was your favorite book growing up?

Ok, America. Open Your Books to Page 1

Here's a summer horror story that's sure to curdle the blood of any book vampire. According to the Associated Press, the median number of books read by Americans in a year is four. And 25 percent of Americans didn't read a single book in the past year. As someone who averages four or five books a month, I find this kind of scary.

I'm lucky; I don't have to drive to work anymore. Before I started commuting on the train two years ago, I probably read ten to twelve books a year. While my commute is significantly longer each day than it was when I still worked in New Jersey, I'm sitting on a train for nearly all of my commute; drive time is never more than 10-15 minutes -- usually less than that.

Enough about me. The people who don't read tend to be less educated than the readers. That makes sense, of course. Those with strong high school and college training generally have learned the value of reading, and books are an important part of one's education. I thought it was interesting that Democrats and liberals tend to read slightly more than Republicans, because it makes no sense. There is no reason why a political affiliation should make any difference by itself.

But while some people don't read at all, others are more voracious readers than I am. One of the women interviewed for the story said she read seventy books a year, which is about 1.4 books per week. Yet, she also said she sometimes gets the stories mixed up.

As someone who occasionally has three books going simultaneously (train reading, bed reading, bathroom reading), I can understand how important it is to keep the type of book varied. Fiction, nonfiction, plays, poetry, science. Keep a steady diet of intelligent discourse for your brain. Mix in a little romance or fantasy or just plain crappy literature every once in a while for dessert. But whatever you do, America, read more!

I want you all ready for when my novels come out :-)

Fancy Nancy Grows Up

Any children's writer who can dabble in adult literature and joke about genitalia sounds ok to me. Jane O'Connor is the author of the "Fancy Nancy" books; I've never read them, but hopefully in about four or five years, I will. Her first adult novel, Dangerous Admissions, is in paperback and the New York Times' review says it's not too bad. Actually, Chelsea Cain said it started awkwardly but eventually gets rolling into a nice little murder mystery. But perhaps Cain is unable to resist a murder mystery in which grammar features as a clue to the killer's identity.

"Grammarians, rejoice. You finally have your own sleuth," she writes.

O'Connor's protagonist is a freelance copy editor named Rannie, who lost her job at Simon and Schuster because she omitted the "L" from the title of a Nancy Drew mystery: The Secret of the Old Clock. As an editor who has been mortified to discover the same omission from the word "public" (spell check doesn't save you from that embarassment, folks -- not that real editors use spell check), I can relate to the character immediately.

Cain's review, however, leaves the reader wondering what happens in the book. Apparently the SWAK killer is terrorizing the Upper West Side, but I have no clue why we should believe a copy-editor who volunteers as a tour guide at her son's private school is an able gumshoe. I like the idea of the character, but I'll need a bit more to go on than that to plunk down $14 for a paperback. I'll wait for the garage sale.

Win at Math

Danica McKellar, who is most famous for playing Winnie Cooper in the Wonder Years, has become an author, but her book isn't about acting or life in Hollywood. McKellar graduated from UCLA with a degree in mathematics and has had a theorem that she co-wrote published in academic literature. I've never met the author of Math Doesn't Suck, but I'd love to buy her a drink and talk to her about Euler, Pascal, and irrational numbers. Oh yeah, and ask what she was thinking when she decided to do Path of Destruction.

I'm actually impressed by the amount of work she's done other than Wonder Years, and she's started to get writing and producing credits. Clearly, she's a smart woman, and I hope she'll be a notable player in the industry -- and possibly also in writing more books -- for many years.