I had some extra time on my hands today, so I thought I'd do a little bit of poking around to find out if past BookBlog authors have been up to anything interesting recently. They're quite a busy bunch.

Steve Martin [Shopgirl] - The March 8th issue of The New Yorker includes script notes on Mel Gibson's The Passion from funnyman Steve Martin. LawGeek was kind enough to share some of it with all of us ("Possible title change: 'Lethal Passion.' Kinda works. The more I say it outloud, the more I like it.") since The New Yorker is kind of stingy with its online content. (link)

Gregory Maguire [Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister] - Damn, I missed it. This past Friday, Maguire was at the Columbus Circle Borders in New York City to sign copies of Wicked. However, the musical version continues to do well on Broadway, and you can buy $100 a pop tickets through its official web site. (link)

Chuck Palahniuk [Invisible Monsters] - On Tuesday, March 16th, Palahniuk will be live online with The Guardian. The author chat starts at 4:00 p.m. GMT, which is 11:00 a.m. EST. Questions posted include "[I]s it really a good way of meeting hot chicks?" and "There was a bit of graffiti on one of the bridges crossing over the 405 from 13th to 14th street. It read: Be boring. Be deathlike. Be Eva Lake. There was some other good graffiti around town, but I don't want to repeat it here. Have you any favorites?" If you, too, have an inane question for Chuck, get it in now. (link)

Jose Saramago [Blindness] - University of California television will be celebrating National Poetry Month by showing poetry-related programs Thursday and Friday nights throughout the month of April. On April 2nd, they will air From Memory to Fiction through History with Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago, a taping of a talk the author gave at UCLA. According to the UCTV site, you should be able to watch it on demand using RealPlayer, but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe you'll have more luck. (link)

J.K. Rowling [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone] - Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been shortlisted for The Butler & Tanner Book of the Year by the British Book Awards. Will she Bend It Like Beckham (Anyone else seen this flick?) and beat out the footballer's autobiography to the top prize? The winners are to be announced on April 7th. (link)

Haruki Murakami [Norwegian Wood] - This summer's Lincoln Center Festival is to include The Elephant Vanishes, a multimedia retelling of three stories by Murakami in Japanese with English supertitles. The performances by Tokyo's Setagaya Public Theatre will be shown from July 21st through July 25th, and tickets for multiple events go on sale beginning April 6th. (link)

Scott Heim [Mysterious Skin] - According to Heim's rarely updated blog, the movie version of Mysterious Skin, which stars the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, is nearly complete. Andy, who moderated the book and also runs realityblurred.com, should be pleased to know that Heim reports being "utterly consumed by reality TV again." Suggestion for Heim: permalinks. xxmarydell. (link)

John Kennedy Toole [A Confederacy of Dunces] - The movie version of our August 2002 selection continues to have trouble getting off the ground, but still stars Will Ferrell as Ignatius J. Reilly. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about Elf, but IMDB message board posters have come up with some interesting alternatives: Oliver Platt, John Goodman, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. (link)

I've been doing a little site maintenance today to close comments on ancient posts because a) random people keep leaving comments on threads that are over a year old and b) comment spammers are annoying.

This task requires reading each thread to seek out and delete anything unwanted, and I came across a comment left on a post by Tripp. After quoting a couple of bible scriptures, the commenter tells us:

note: this is God's word written by the Holy Spirit given to Jesus Christ's beloved friend John by a risen Jesus himself in the final book of the Bible. This is God's true message to a sinful mankind WARNING against witchcraft - rawlings obviously didn't heed God's warning to her - will you heed God's warning to you? Worship her (instead of God) at your peril.

Rawlings didn't heed God's warning? I never knew The Yearling was such a dangerous and seditious book.

Good evening!
I trust everyone has finished this month's selection of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" so I will get right to it.

Harry Potter has lived a miserable life since his parents' death. Left to survive with his horrible aunt and uncle, the Dursleys, and their spoiled son Dudley, Harry has been forced to live in a closet under the stairs. But as his eleventh birthday approaches, all this is about to change. A mysterious letter arrives by owl messanger, inviting him to attend Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry is astonished to learn the truth about his parents — that they were wizards of the highest renown — and that he is destined to become one too. At Hogwarts, Harry finds friends and becomes an expert in Quidditch, an aerial sport played on broomsticks. But soon he becomes involved in a life-threatening struggle against the forces of darkness, and finds himself fighting for survival against those who would rather see him dead before he can come into his full powers.

Much of what is classified as high fantasy has as its central theme the classic struggle of good over evil. In this book, the suspense is also built by the fact that the evil of Voldemort and his followers is a tricky enemy to defeat, because much is hidden from plain sight. Harry and his friends, then, are left with a mystery to puzzle out before they can begin to understand and confront, let alone defeat, the enemy. Their task is made even more difficult as they cannot convince their superiors of the impending danger. The young heroes have to face their greatest challenges without any support from adults until the last few pages.

Did you like this book? What made this book exciting for you?

I am so excited about this month's selection of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I am looking forward to discussing it with everyone. Enjoy!

Mary D. mentioned how she is troubled by the Christian Conservatives who believe that Harry Potter is pushing a pagan point view. We would not want our kids to become witches would we? Well, as opposed to journeying back to the Salem Witch Trials or the Spanish Inquisition, above you will find an alternative.

Peace!