Barbara's Random Thoughts

A belated year-end publishing tidbit from the Chicago Sun-Times: Little events in the publishing world that "helped keep 2004 from boredom."

PROOF THAT AMERICAN POP CULTURE HASN'T QUITE OVERRUN THE WORLD: The reaction of Larissa Volokhonsky, translator (with her husband Richard Pevear) of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, when told that Oprah had named their edition her summer reading selection. Volokhonsky said the name Oprah Winfrey "was for me totally unknown. I didn't understand what it could possibly mean." What it meant was an increase of 800,000 copies in Penguin's press run for the book.

WHO SAYS GOOD BOOKS CAN'T REFORM BAD CHILDREN? In Wichita, Kan., a boy stuffed a book under his shirt at Watermark Books and headed out the door. But when he passed a life-size cardboard cutout of Lemony Snicket's evil Count Olaf, the figurine -- containing a motion-sensor chip that plays messages with sinister laughs -- bellowed, "Where did you get that book?" The kid stopped in his tracks and returned the loot.