It was nearly a year ago that we raved to you about Daniel Pink's Wired article on manga, specifically the flourishing fan subculture known as dojinshi. Tonight, in a lecture at New York's Japan Society, Pink will share what he learned about that nation's comic book scene in a more intimate setting—we hesitate to call it a lecture—with, we're told, loads of visual references.
How did Pink get turned on to the subject in the first place? "I saw the manga sections of libraries and bookstores in the U.S. expanding," he emailed us recently, "and I wanted to get a better sense of what was going on. Why were these Japanese comics so appealing to American young people? Then as I dug a little deeper, I discovered that manga was a huge business in Japan. That combination—a powerful industry that also was beginning to have a grip on the cultural mind—lwas irresistible."
So irresistible that Pink wrote his latest handbook of career advice, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, in manga format, with illustrations by Rob Ten Pas (who also drew the headshot of Pink at right). "Writing this book definitely honed my narrative abilities," Pink says of the experience. "I had no idea how to tell a story with pictures. Rob helped teach me that. And it was powerful. I never realized how much narrative freight pictures could carry. I think the ultimate effect of that is that I'm now slightly better at narrating more succinctly. Alas, my next book is going to be more traditional. It will have sentences and paragraphs and page numbers and all those ancient conventions!"
When Claire LaZebnik came to New York last week to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, The Smart One and the Pretty One, the book party quickly turned into a family gathering. LaZebnik (second from right) was joined by her three sisters—Sabrina writer Nell Scovell, Julie Kaufman, and kid's book author Alice Coleman—as well as her cousin, Jane Weitzman (the wife of shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, at whose Columbus Circle showroom the reception was held).
Then there was Conan O'Brien, who isn't actually related to LaZebnik, but did graduate in the same class at Harvard (a year behind her husband, Simpsons writer Rob LaZebnik).
Mingling with writers, producers, and a legal bordello owner, authors Patrick Buckley and Lily Binns celebrated the release of their new book, The Hungry Scientist Handbook on Friday.
Subtitled Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies, the book was the brainchild of an engineer and his creative friends. As the country shuffles into a recession, these two famished authors hope that their science book can help readers.
At the Manhattan party, favors included liquid nitrogen ice cream, edible lingerie, and a wired pastry. The party was hosted by pioneering editor, Judith Regan, Buckley's proud mother. Among the guests was Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof, the brothel owner featured on the HBO show, Cathouse.
When literary blogger Maud Newton wrote last Friday about being disabused of a literary prejudice by reading Keith Lee Morris's latest, The Dart League King, which proved to her that novels written in a close-third person voice with multiple, alternating perspectives don't have to be "emotionally empty, utterly plotless stories that drift from one unsympathetic character to another and culminate in wishy-washy epiphanies," it reminded us that we'd gotten a copy of that novel ourselves recently, which was sitting near the top of one of our own to-read stacks. So we had a look at the opening chapters over the weekend, and, doggone it, she was right: It is awfully engrossing. (Read an excerpt for yourself, and see if you agree.)
And that, coupled with another conversation about Maud's post, got us to thinking: What "least rational contemporary fiction prejudices" were we still holding in our hearts? This proved more difficult a question that we'd anticipated at first—particularly since we were in a hurry, which rather hampered our ability to fully interrogate our assumptions—but we did finally allow as how we generally have to be dragged kicking and screaming into reading any epic fantasy that isn't written by George R.R. Martin, and that we should stop acting "pleasantly surprised" when anybody else's work in the genre turns out to be good.
How about you? What biases in your reading habits could use a good challenge this week? Email us or share your thoughts in the comments section.
During a day packed with news of a panicked Wall Street, a number of Internet writers still covered the debut of The Daily Beast--Tina Brown's first step into webby journalism.
In this big launch, the author of The Diana Chronicles and former New Yorker editor crossed The Huffington Post, the content aggregating site Digg, and a glossy magazine from a happier era.
"One quick-hit way to get top names up there: the Buzz Board featuring what 'smart people recommend' and led by Bill Clinton on launch day recommending 'three bailout-related books.'
How did Pink get turned on to the subject in the first place? "I saw the manga sections of libraries and bookstores in the U.S. expanding," he emailed us recently, "and I wanted to get a better sense of what was going on. Why were these Japanese comics so appealing to American young people? Then as I dug a little deeper, I discovered that manga was a huge business in Japan. That combination—a powerful industry that also was beginning to have a grip on the cultural mind—lwas irresistible."
When literary blogger 
During a day packed with news of a panicked Wall Street, a number of Internet writers still covered the debut of