Allow me to present a hypothesis: Dan Brown is the Anne Hathaway of authors. Hard-working, serious about his craft (even if others aren't), with lots and lots of money to show for his work. And people love to hate him as much, and sometimes even more, than they love to love him.
Today in books and publishing: Fifty Shades merchandise is on its way and you can't stop it; Thomas Pynchon e-books are available as of today; a hotel themed for books in Paris.
Allow me to discourse about my guilty pleasure for a few moments. It is the long-running HGTV series, House Hunters. People say it's a lie. I say, who cares?
We're all attachment daters on some level. That's what dating is: Attaching, and detaching, and sometimes attaching again. You're probably not as bad as the "Overly Attached Girlfriend" meme, but chances are, you show some signs of attachment to whomever you are dating.
Today in books and publishing: There may be a second Fifty Shades trilogy; a memorial for Maurice Sendak in New York Tuesday; the best of the indies and the self-published bunch; NYPL drama continues.
The Wall Street Journal is preparing Baby Boomers (and their kids) for a harsh truth: They may not get those inheritances they expected.
Today in books and publishing: A possible Ray Bradbury museum; Google settles their French book-scanning dispute; Oprah's Book Club 2.0 may not have the same touch; the future of books on demand.
In the last episode of a season in which we saw Lane's suicide, Peggy leaving the agency, Joan sleeping with someone to ensure the Jaguar win (and a partnership for herself), Sally hitting puberty (literally), and Betty in Weight Watchers, our main man has a toothache.
The phrase of the week was "très Brooklyn," from a piece by Julia Moskin in The New York Times. Except there is no "très Brooklyn," we were informed by a couple Parisians who should know. Never was, hopefully never will be.
The Telegraph has handily listed 50 indications that you are an adult. Now you can stay young forever by doing the opposite.
Mayor Bloomberg's 29-year-old daughter, Georgina, at "a cocktail soiree hosted by Stefano Tonchi for Gucci’s Frida Gianni last night," told New York's Daily Intel in response to a question about her dad's soda ban that "people should be allowed to make their own bad choices."
Today in books and publishing: Animating the books in Moonrise Kingdom; Barnes & Noble fights back against the government's e-book settlement; a familiar cover design hits the Vice fiction issue; why we need to read books on the subway.
At Book Expo America, we got a sneak peek at the most-talked about new Y.A. and children's titles, and we referred to some publishing industry insiders for their takes on the books you don't want to miss.
We're starting to wonder...what Fifty Shades of Grey-related story—trend piece, reported article, interview, spin-off book—has yet to be written?
Today is the third and final day of BEA, or Book Expo America, which is being held at New York's Jacob Javits Center. Gauging the health of an industry by looking at how many industry people are at an industry event is something, but it's not everything.
Today in books and publishing: A nun's banned book on sexuality has a renewed life on Amazon; the business of digital self-publishing; writers and friends remember Ray Bradbury; BEA's last day.
"Work" and "exercise" are being combined to a greater and greater degree, as if someone forgot that these are two totally separate things, not meant for combining at all.
Today in books and publishing: A memoir for Whitney Houston; how to walk and read; day two of Book Expo of America; and more.
Declaring some part of New York City the "new" it spot is as much a trend as going to the beach in the summer. For your consideration: The Martha's Vineyard of the Bronx.
As you probably not aware, today is Ferris Bueller Day, the celebration of the day, some 27 years ago, that the fictional Chicago teen of Ferris Bueller's Day Off cut school and went out on the town. In that spirit, let's discuss the movie. Is it an essential classic or not?
Women should feel free not to have babies, or not to get married, as they see fit. That's the mark of a progressive society! Except, if that's the case, why do we have to keep talking, talking, talking about it?
Today in books: Book Expo America is on; Sony introduces an augmented reality book for Playstation by J.K. Rowling; Amazon buys Avalon Books; and more.
Hold on to your mattresses, single people living alone: "Couples may get health benefits simply from sleeping in the same bed, a burgeoning field of study is showing."
Adweek has a pretty breastactular article on the science and history of the mammary in advertising today.
Julia Moskin's New York Times trend piece on how artisanal food trucks are all the rage in Paris not only offends our dearly departed Artisanal, but serves to inflict a mortal wound upon Brooklyn, not to mention the entire country of France.
Today in books: Oprah's book club is back, e-books stands for "erotic," and the Vatican does not approve of nuns talking sex.
Sunday's episode of Mad Men brought the death that everyone's been waiting for. Throughout the episode there was also a theme of men struggling to become men and women struggling to become women, with success in varying degrees.
If there's one thing Amercia loves, it's a good, old-fashioned viral typo.
There's a further gender gap in media, and this one extends beyond the bylines themselves.
After learning how much was lacking in John Edwards — lack of character, lack of what we need in a leader and, more personally, in a husband and father, lack of a certain kind of humanity — his criminal trial came down to a lack of evidence.
We asked some of our favorite Y.A. book authors for the titles that would have been on their ideal summer reading lists, and why.
Even though money sits at the heart of the most fundamental human issues, we fear talking about it, quite possibly making money issues, including pay equity, worse.
Those who've lived in New York City for a while remember fondly a time when not much of anything was banned at all. But there's an even darker side to bans. They widen the divide between the rich, who can find a way around them, and the poor, who perhaps cannot.
Artisanal, a word that fought early in his career to ensure recognition of craftsmen for their important contributions to society before later being drafted into the creation of a worldwide gourmet branding glut, died Wednesday.
Every couple of weeks another report comes out with a new statistic that demonstrates what we should all know by now: women writers are not being published as often as men. But we're still working at getting to the heart of the matter.
Even though the Clintons consist of the current Secretary of State (Hillary) and the former U.S. President (Bill), they are just normal folks, and pretty darn good neighbors, too, more involved in their chosen town more than anyone might have imagined, writes Peter Applebome in a piece in The New York Times.
On the Internet, there are certain principles that remain the same, regardless of the breaks you take or long weekends that are thrust upon you without your approval. One of those things is anger.
There's a new trend in relationship management, and it's called the "relationship contract." How fun does that sound?
It was nearly a year ago that Anthony Weiner resigned from his Congressional seat after being busted in a sexting scandal. But The New York Post is not done with him yet.
Sunday night's episode of Mad Men was a culmination of themes that have been percolating all season—and quite possibly, the best episode thus far of season five.
Is there a G-rated word more hideous and nasty to women than the word "cougar"? What about when we apply it to 16-year-old girls?
Everyone's busily putting forth what, exactly, you should be reading this summer, so we won't bother you with that. Instead, we're supplying you with the information you need to choose the right book all by yourself.
Once again, nearly as consistently as prying public discussions into the supposed ticking of our biological clocks, the Cosmo-esque fake cover of Overanalyzing magazine has been recirculating. Where did it come from?
In the many phases of how to feel about Mark Zuckerberg's marriage, we have reached "wedding shaming." Is it possible for a billionaire to have a nice, relatively normal wedding without being mocked for it?
What's your favorite Wes Anderson film? You would be amazed at what your preferences say about who you are, at least according to this entirely unscientific but completely authoritative exploration.
Who were the boy characters who formed our impressions of who guys were supposed to be, who set crushable standards, who we wanted to grow up and some day meet—or become—ourselves?
Today in books: 50 Shades is read in the North but loved in the South; Bob Woodward's new book is about the Obama economy; authors are not reading their elders.
By now you've seen the photo of Bill Clinton with the porn stars, the one that began circulating on Twitter last evening and is now in Page Six, and in various other tabloids, along with faux shocked headlines like "What would Hillary say?"
Proposed legislation in New York State hopes to rid the Internet of mean, anonymous commenters. But do we really want to get rid of those people, even if we can?
Guess what, single friends! The Wall Street Journal's Sue Shellenbarger has a tip for you: You're doing it wrong.
Heather Cocks (left) and Jessica Morgan, creators of the blog Go Fug Yourself and authors of books including the upcoming Messy, have slightly different strategies for their similarly extensive daily media consumption.
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