Lower Manhattan in the fog, with ferry. This was taken on the pier behind my office today.

I can't believe I start school next week. I'm sure we'll be talking about James Frey and J.T. Leroy, which I'm looking forward to. It's nice when there's a little scandal in the overall boring publishing industry! Despite both Frey and Leroy being outed as shysters, this is the kind of publicity marketing departments only fantasize about. Sarah: A Novel by Leroy has jumped up over 1,000 spots on the Amazon.com bestseller list from 3,533 yesterday to 1,992 today. Now that's a publicity coup! And A Million Little Pieces is still at number one, but I think it's been there basically since Oprah picked it for her book club. I'm definitely going to watch Larry King tonight to see what Frey has to say for himself.

The start of school means I'll never get to finish the book I just started, A Crime of Self-Defense: Bernhard Goetz and the Law on Trial by George P. Fletcher. It's totally fascinating, and he writes in layman's terms which is even better for my non-lawyer self. I've got Perilous Times in the wings, which is most likely going to stay there for a while. But the book I have to read for my editing class looks pretty good: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.