12.21.09 - 1:00PM
- by
Eliot Glazer

Stacked Up - YouTube for Bookworms

susan orlean For those of us who remember reading words off screens that were bound paper with covers (#books), the Amazon Kindle is no less than a revolutionary product that combines the old with the new. But whether you're reading literature on a giant iPod or on real, live parchment, all that stuff started when a human adult writer put pen to paper (or MS Word, probs).

Bookworms use the internet, too, and now they can finally see their favorite authors reveal what lies on their own bookshelves! Already featuring clips with A.J. Jacobs and Susan Orlean, "reformed comedian" Amanda Stern's series Stacked Up provides a peek into the libraries of bestselling authors.

Here's a pow-wow with Orchid Thief author and New Yorker writer Susan Orlean:

link:// Stacked Up

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12.23.09

By Barbara Jacksier

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YouTube for bookworms, what a brilliant idea!

I first discovered Ms. Orlean when John Laroche (alias The Orchid Thief) called to tell me that some other New York "babe" was writing about him. I was editing a gardening magazine based in NYC at the time and John would call to chat (ie rant and rave at me) from time to time. I loved the article and started searching for anything else she wrote.

I was fascinated by Ms. Orlean's book list for her upcoming class at NYU. For years, until I retired from editing, The Bullfighter Checks Her Make-Up, was the book I gave to my associate editors and freelance writers to learn how to write a great opening sentence. I suggest she assigns it, too.