Two years ago, John McNally sent his novel The Book of Ralph to one of his heroes. Now he has found a copy for sale on Abebooks, with this blurb: “A pristine copy with an interesting inscription: ‘For Ursula K. LeGuin, whose novel The Lathe of Heaven made me decide to become a writer. With gratitude, John McNally, 5/04’.” That “pristine” must have stung.
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Attempting to improve the image of George W. Bush, the White House says that the President has not only read L’Étranger by Albert Camus this summer, but challenged his adviser, Karl Rove, to a reading competition, and leads by 60 books to 50. Bush’s list includes two Flashman novels, two books about Abraham Lincoln, Macbeth and Hamlet. Speculating on the time the presidential workload must allow for reading, one recalls Sam Goldwyn’s remark: “I read part of it all the way through.”
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The children’s author Michelle Paver caused a stink at a booksigning this week, Waterstone’s tells us. One of the two enthusiastic wolf cubs who accompanied her left an unscheduled “deposit” on the carpet. Armed with rubber gloves and a bucket, the events manager Cathy Waterhouse had to remove the offending package for the event to proceed.
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Norman Mailer gets no less ambitious in his eighties. His forthcoming The Castle in the Forest is a family saga about three generations of the Hitler family, culminating with Adolf.