A Christmas Carol[5]: First day downloads topped 1 million. No. Not really, But it felt that way, in the afternoon, to see that the Amazon download was no longer ranked 200,000. The book hit #942 on Kindle --- and, even better, #8 on the Kindle Fiction Classics list and #23 in Books. Fantastic results, considering that there are many free downloads of the Dickens original. More to the point, you’re not downloading it as a favor and moving on. As I was taking the kid to school this morning, a friend berated me for keeping her up so late. And this was in the mail: “I bought one for my Kindle and started reading it this evening to my 12 y/o niece after she turned off the ‘Grinch,’ announcing it was for ‘children.’ She is mesmerized! And commented, ‘This doesn't sound like the one my dad read to me.’” Color me grateful.
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I’ve spent a long career believing that a thousand words can be worth more than a picture. But last year, with all the talk of “Web 2.0” in my ear, I rethought that facile remark and assembled my ten favorite videos of 2010[6]. More recently, Paige Peterson’s illustrations for “A Christmas Carol”[7] are so strong that I’m starting to think of our effort as a graphic novel. So doing another “10 best” video list was a no-brainer.
Romanticism shot through with self-knowledge. A sample lyric from “Looking for a Girl (Who Knows How to Love Me)” goes like this: “I’m looking for a girl who’s easy on the eye/ but not so fucking stupid she makes me want to cry.” And what a voice!
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