The most requested books by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are the Harry Potter series, according to the US Department of Defense (via Bibliophile Bookpen). Previously, I didn't have a view one way or the other on these prisoners, but now I rather like them. I suppose the books are popular with the prisoners partly because they can at least be thankful they aren't incarcerated in Azkhaban.
Kim of Reading Matters has spotted an Oscar Wilde action figure doll in London. Don't ask.....
In the "po faced" category, Galley Cat reports that "serious literary women agree: chick-lit is just a marketing tag". What took them so long? Is it being serious or being literary that prevented them from seeing what's been obvious to the rest of the world for about 10 years? (I won't contemplate that their being women had anything to do with it). According to the Times, packaging anything as chick lit is how publishers try to get "people who read women's magazines" to read books. Hence the pink Jane Austen covers, etc.
Finally, for now, though not a fan of memes, I did like John Baker's (L. Lee Lowe has a nice set of answers to it over at Lowebrow), but here's a great one at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. The challenge is to change one letter in each of three book titles. Sarah's answers are "The Billing Floor", "The Mercy Seal" and "Every Secret Thong". Read her blurbs! Hope to see your own answers on your blogs -- especially Frank the headline king. I'm busy pondering.
Well, I'm hoping to come up with three novel titles for that meme by the end of the week. A hard one, though!
Posted by: crimeficreader | 18 September 2006 at 23:06
I find that curious that the prisoners at Guantanamo find the Harry Potter books fascinating. Perhaps they consider themselves to be magical, and the West to be the muggles.
Posted by: Douglas | 19 September 2006 at 05:11