If you're intimidated by Stephen King's 1,000-plus page novel, "Under the Dome," don't worry. A small-scale version may be headed to your TV. According to Variety, Steven Spielberg and King are developing a series based on the new book, which King recently signed at a Baltimore-area Walmart (shown here).

DreamWorks TV has optioned the book and wants to set it up as a series, likely for cable. The novel is about a small Maine town that suddenly is enveloped by an invisible dome, triggering panic and other reactions among the residents.

Still, there's no guarantee about the TV show. Spielberg and King developed a screen adaptation of King's 1984 novel "The Talisman," on which the director has had the option for more than 20 years, Variety noted. That project came close to being done as a mini-series for TNT a few years ago until it was tabled for budgetary reasons.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Happy Friday, everybody!

I'm pretty excited about the weekend, because I hope to be going back to my bookworm ways after a few exciting weeks. I'm itching to finish both King's "Under the Dome" and Westerfeld's "Leviathan." For those who are unfamiliar with Scott Westerfeld's YA best-sellers, "Leviathan" is a great way to get started. It follows the action of the start of World War I, but in a world where "Darwinists" have created genetically enhanced warbeasts and "Clankers" have highly advanced -- for their time -- technology.

On to the winner of John Grisham's Ford County: Julie P.! Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy your new book!

In less than one week, we'll all be in a turkey-induced stupor, so I thought it would be entirely appropriate to give away a book about food. "Julie and Julia" author Julie Powell's latest, "Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession," to be precise.

So tell us what you're reading, and it could be yours!

Posted by Nancy Knight at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

With Stephenie Meyer's "New Moon" hitting theaters, The Washington Post took a front-page look at fans who reluctantly, oh so reluctantly, have come to love Twilight and her other works. Women who are well past the age of fangirls, but who still feel touched by the teen-love story. Who can't put the books down. And who start naming their pets (and kids?) after characters in the novels.

Anyone who has read comments on Read Street posts about Meyer is familiar with this phenomenon. Women in their 20s, 30s and beyond have rushed to her defense when others criticized her novels. So if you see "New Moon," expect a crowd of women of all ages -- and not just those who are chaperoning their kids. (By the way, here's a review of "New Moon," photo galleries and much more about the movie.) And here's some first-hand, womanly testimony from Read Street comments:

"I am 26 years old ... a doctor ... [and ] I found Stephenie Meyer's novels utterly captivating, because, unlike pretty much every other fantasy/sci-fi book in existence, they are subtle and enjoyable, with a nice dose of romance. -- Nette

"I'm ... a 37 year old mother to an 11 year old daughter and my husband and I had to fight her for the Twilight books ,,, I think it was the romance, being reminded of those intense, passionate feelings of first love -- Amy

Photo by David Stone

Continue reading "Stephanie Meyer's women-fans and New Moon" »

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Tom Clancy, the king of techno-thrillers, is cashing in some of the spoils from his remarkable writing career with the purchase of a $12.6 million penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences on Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The nearly 12,000-square-foot residence was originally three separate penthouses, combined at Clancy's request, according to a story today in The Baltimore Sun. The penthouse has four bedrooms, six balconies with harbor views and 6 1/2 bathrooms. Features include a private theater and three "semi-private" elevators, and it's as big as five typical new U.S. houses.

Clancy lives in rural Maryland, and will keep a residence there, but has long had ties to the city -- even helping Peter Angelos buy the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. Photos of Clancy's new home aren't available, but here's a gallery of the Ritz-Carlton project.

Durn. Why didn't I take that course "Writing techno-thrillers 101" in college?

AP photo from 2004

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Exactly how many Bush administration tell-alls will it take before everything's been told?

Following in the footsteps of former press secretary Scott McClellan, Vice President Dick Cheney, first lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush himself, top White House aide Karl Rove has written a book about his experiences in the West Wing, titled "Courage and Consequence."

Publisher Threshold Editions, which is also publishing Cheney's book, says the memoir "frankly responds to critics, passionately articulates his political philosophy and openly explains the reasons behind his decisions in campaigns and the White House."

I wonder if he's finally going to tell us what he REALLY thinks about being called "Turd Blossom."

(AP photo)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Today's the day that Rocky & Bullwinkle -- the most famous squirrel/moose combo in show biz history -- mark 50 years since their debut on ABC.

I spent many hours in front of the TV watching them and other characters on the show: Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, and Aesop and Son. (I got a good laugh years later, when my Russian history book referred to Boris Godunov.)

But in case you think all that TV time was wasted, I'd argue that my early fascination with Aesop's Fables was fueled by the cartoon Aesop and Son. So some good came out of it.

Artwork courtesy of Classic Media

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

As you may have already figured out, I'm a huge fan of web comics. From Hark! A Vagrant to xkcd, they're just fun, short bursts of intelligent humor (which can then pull you deeper into the site until you realize you've just wasted half the day).

So between that and my beloved Kindle, I'm still always taken aback when people get all hostile about reading from a screen. I mean, you do it all day at work. You follow link after link that friends send you via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. But somehow when you get home, it's a taboo medium.

So leave it to another web comic to eloquently communicate my pain: Downloading Optimism.*

The author, Lucy Knisley, is no stranger to the printed word -- she has her own memoir, the drawing journal "French Milk," and has even worked at a magazine, according to her Web site.

Just further proof that a loving both books and computers is possible. Which is good for us, since Read Street wouldn't exist otherwise.

*And as an aside, happy birthday to Margaret Atwood! Let's see if you write so well when you're 70!

(Photo by ralaenin on stockxchng)

Posted by Nancy Knight at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The New Oxford American Dictionary has named its 2009 Word of the Year: unfriend. For those who do not have kids, it's a verb that means "to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook." An example from the dictionary: “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

Or, even better: "John McCain unfriended Sarah Palin after reading 'Going Rogue.' "

On the Oxford University Press blog, senior lexicographer Christine Lindberg said of unfriend, “It has both currency and potential longevity. ... Most “un-” prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar “un-” verbs (uncap, unpack), but “unfriend” is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of “friend” that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal.”

I think it's actually an elaborate joke by the Brits, honoring such an ungainly word for the American dictionary. I bet the British word of the year is much more chic, like "refoulement." (Then again, maybe not, considering the OED has updated its entry for "ape" by adding the subentries "apeshit" and "to go ape-shit.")

Why couldn't the WOTY be one of the others on the short list? I'd prefer "intexticated" -- distracted while texting and driving. Or "tramp stamp" – a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

For those who've waited for a more interactive e-book to surface, here it is: Vook. The company, founded in 2008, has created a new platform, blending stories with video and social media to create what they bill as a new reading experience.

 It looks pretty cool.

 So far, Vook has partnered with publisher such as Simon & Schuster and HarperStudio to provide cookbooks, exercise guides, self-help and even a romance novella by best-seller Jude Devereaux. They all incorporate the text of a traditional book, with video interwoven, much as photos are used in a traditional bound book. Even better, you can connect with the author and other readers using either the same Web browser, if you're reading on your computer; or the same application, if you're using your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I'm not sure if this platform would suit every book -- for instance, I'd prefer to imagine my own characters and settings in my fictional favorites -- but in the case of cookbooks, biographies and historical texts, actual footage used to enhance the text is a great idea.

Can you imagine how much more exciting learning about World War II or the Berlin Wall coming down would be for high-schoolers if they could watch the events as they occurred? Or mix in some Bill Nye-type to explain why physics really isn't as boring as every student thinks it is.

 Sometimes, technology really is exciting.

Posted by Nancy Knight at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The pre-holiday season has already spawned pop blockbusters from Dan Brown ("The Lost Symbol") and Stephen King ("Under the Dome"), but another super-hot author, Stephenie Meyer, is waiting it out. (Likely on a very comfy lawn chair, peering out over the Arizona desert.)

She says she "is a little burned out on vampires right now" -- a statement that will make millions of her fans feel faint. "I might go spend some time with my aliens, I might do something completely different. I've got to cleanse the palate," Meyer said recently in an Oprah interview. She hinted that she might try her hand at a pure fantasy novel, a la J.K. Rowling -- you know, one with a map in the front.

At least her Twilight devotees have something else to look forward to: Friday's release of the "New Moon" movie.

Maybe King has psyched Meyer out with his statement that she "can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good." Or maybe she's worried that King will drop a copy of his new hardback -- more than 1,000 pages worth -- on her if she fights back. 

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)