Mid-Week Roundup

--"If I'm going down, I'm taking all you jag-bags with me."

"Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's book about his journey that led up to his being ousted from office, promises to expose 'the dark side of politics that he witnessed in both the state and national level.'"

--Story Prize taken by Wolff, Lahiri, and Meno.

"For a literary honor that didn’t exist before 2004, the Story Prize — which recognizes the best story collection to be published each year — has quickly established itself as a nifty jewel in a writer’s crown. Its top award ($20,000 and an engraved silver bowl) is the richest available for a single book of fiction, and the prize ceremony is a congenial, clubby affair reminiscent of “Inside the Actor’s Studio”: the three finalists read from their work, then cross the stage to sit in leather armchairs and take questions from the prize’s director, Larry Dark.

"At this year’s ceremony — held last Wednesday at the New School’s Tischman Auditorium — Larry Dark cast his vote for renaissance. Anyone who thinks the story is dying, he said, need only read the work of the three finalists: Tobias Wolff, Jhumpa Lahiri and Joe Meno."

Joe who? you’re asking.

--"College Students Read Crap" That's what WaPo might as well title this article. It's what the writer means.

"In 1969, when Alice Echols went to college, everybody she knew was reading Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver's new collection of essays. For Echols, who now teaches a course on the '60s at the University of Southern California, that psychedelic time was filled with "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," "The Golden Notebook," the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the erotic diaries of Anaïs Nin.

"Forty years later, on today's college campuses, you're more likely to hear a werewolf howl than Allen Ginsberg, and Nin's transgressive sexuality has been replaced by the fervent chastity of Bella Swan, the teenage heroine of Stephenie Meyer's modern gothic 'Twilight' series. It's as though somebody stole Abbie Hoffman's book -- and a whole generation of radical lit along with it."

I'll confess that my knee-jerk reaction is to think, argh, dang kids! But then I think back to what I was reading in college: beer labels. And the student paper, but that was mostly to see what beer was on special. Seriously, there was about a two-year period there where I read nuh-thing. And then, the summer before my senior year, the summer that I got serious about this girl who later became my wife, I wandered into the IU library and checked out The Sun Also Rises and American Psycho.

An odd pairing, to be sure, but those two books kind of fit together, too, like love and reading.

Look, I don't know why college students read Harry Potter. Maybe it's due to an extended adolescence, like WaPo suggests; maybe it's because students have had so much "serious" required reading. Or maybe it's because, as a society, we've equated "easy" with "entertaining." But you know what? I'm mostly glad they're reading anything besides Twitter. And I have to think that if they just keep reading, they'll eventually get hungry for something a little meatier.

--Lastly, here's a quick update from The Mystery Company about an author visit tonight. That's right: tonight. I just got it today. And you'll notice the blurb doesn't say what time she'll be there. Can someone talk to The Mystery Company about the basics of promotion, please?

"Wednesday, March 11, Rosemary Harris visits to talk about and sign copies of her books Pushing Up Daisies (St. Martin's, $23.95 in hardcover; $6.99 in paperback) and The Big Dirt Nap (Minotaur, $24.95), the first two books in her engaging and delightful gardening mystery series. Daisies is an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel of 2008.

"Rosemary will also talk about how she and her husband built a library in Tanzania; visit Rosemary's website at http://www.rosemaryharris.com/chalula.htm to learn more about this exciting and inspiring project. We will donate a portion of sales of Rosemary's hardcovers (now through March 15) to the Chalula Library."