Bibliofile

The books most likely to be stolen from a bookshop are pornographic ones, according to a Norwegian news report. Apparently readers with a penchant for the erotic are too embarrassed to bring them up to the cashier. But publishers there have found an ingenious way of cashing in on this. The Norwegian translation of Pauline Reage’s French sadomasochist classic The Story of O (described by Graham Greene as "a rare thing, a pornographic book well-written and without a trace of obscenity"), now has the cover proclaiming it as "Norway’s most stolen book".

Chick lit, after its first burst of creativity, is fast fading out, thanks to the hundreds of clones of Bridget Jones’ Diary and Sex in the City. But springchick lit is the happening thing now. With cover jackets featuring girls in short skirts and bikini cleavage, these books for teens are "a nasty, guilty pleasure", according to the Publisher’s Weekly. The most popular in this genre is the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. But there’s also Three Girls in the City, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and The True Meaning of Cleavage. The one that should interest Indian schoolgirls most is Knocked Out By My Nunga Nungas. Wonder if the author, Louise Rennison, is into Hinglish.