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As I searched archival films from the nineteen-forties through -sixties for footage to use in a funny book trailer for my upcoming novel, How To Buy a Love of Reading, I chuckled at the depictions of readers and reading that made them seem as exciting as Brussels sprouts (and as humorless).  One of Coronet's "instructional films" shows a student library volunteer-who patently aspires to the position of hall monitor-repeatedly denying a classmate's pleas to keep an overdue book out one more day with, "I can't.  It's a rule."  The narrator of another film proclaims that the purpose of leisure reading is to "learn things you'd like to know about many subjects."

Fifty or so years later, for many people reading still appears that boring.  The protagonist of my novel, teenage Carley Wells, thinks it's stultifying.  She's learned from her parents that people read books or pretend to read them to impress other people.  She's learned from school that books are supposed to be dissected into symbols and metaphors and other literary devices, like "fetal pigs." According to the most recent NEA study on reading, while overall reading is on the rise, we're becoming a nation divided into two categories: readers (like you, I presume, since you're reading a book blog) and nonreaders like Carley.

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If I had the chance to experience my teenage years all over again, there's no way I would go back.  Surviving mortification has definitely made me a stronger person, but reliving those horrific times would require a superhuman amount of strength.  However, if I had to go back and do it all again, I would want to take what I know now with me.  There are some really important things I wish someone would have told me when I was in high school.  There are also a lot of things people always say are true about high school, but are such lies.  From these, I have compiled the Top Ten High School Myths.  Today I will share the first three with you.

Myth #1.  This is the best time of your life.

Uh, no it's not.  It's the worst time of your life.  I never get it when grownups say how being a teen was so fabulous.  Either they were super popular jock types back in the day (in which case, that's great and all, but most of us cannot relate) or they just forget what high school is really like.  It's amazing how much pain time erases.

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Greg Mortenson Speaks on Peace at the Two-Year Anniversary of Virginia Tech’s Tragedy

When Penguin Speakers Bureau (PSB) received a heartfelt letter from Virginia Tech senior Megan Mirmelstein, the "wheels" began to set in motion for Greg Mortenson to visit her campus and speak on peace at the two-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech (VT) Tragedy. At the time PSB received Megan's letter, she had recently finished reading Three Cups of Tea, and immediately thought a visit to her campus by Greg would honor those students and faculty tragically lost to us on April 16, 2007. Megan knew Greg's message of peace and hope would touch everyone, but she felt a visit from him would particularly honor her boyfriend and good friend, both International Studies majors who were among those students lost.

On the eve of the anniversary, Greg spoke to 2,900 people at VT's Burruss Auditorium. On April 16th, he toured the newly opened Center for Peace Studies at VT (the site of the shootings), and had brunch with the victims’ families, where Greg gave them each a copy of Three Cups of Tea. He also visited Blacksburg New School, where the school kids presented him with a check of the money they had raised for Pennies for Peace.

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The Penguin Press Brings Home Three 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards

The winners for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced earlier this week and two Penguin Press authors, Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl, brought home three awards.

Michael Pollan won his second James Beard Award for In Defense of Food in the Writing and Literature category. He won his first award for The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And Ruth Reichl, author of Not Becoming My Mother, won the award for Multimedia Writing on Food for her essay “The Test Kitchen” which appeared on Gourmet.com and the Magazine Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or Chefs award for her essay “The Last Time I Saw Paris…” featured in the September 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine.

Last year, Penguin Group (USA) won two James Beard Awards as well. Imbibe: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, A Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar by David Wondrich (Perigee) won best book in the Wine & Spirits category, while Junot Díaz author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead), won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for his essay "He'll Take El Alto," featured in the September 2007 issue of Gourmet Magazine.

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Nora Roberts’ Vision in White Grabs #1 New York Times Trade Paperback Fiction Bestseller Position, which The Shack Had Previously Held for Nearly a Year

World-class #1 bestselling author Nora Roberts demonstrates the power of her vast readership as her newest Berkley book, Vision in White, debuts at #1 on The New York Times trade paperback fiction bestseller list for the week of May 17th, knocking The Shack from that position, which it had previously held for 49 consecutive weeks. No other author had been able to dislodge The Shack until Nora did it with Vision in White, Book One in the Bride Quartet series. Over 940,000 copies of Vision in White have been shipped to date.

This represents Nora’s second #1 New York Times bestseller in less than a month. The Jove edition of Tribute was #1 on the mass market paperback fiction bestseller list for the weeks of April 26th and May 3rd.

Congratulations to the entire paperback division for this great achievement!