Like most Lolita-minded individuals, I'm a voracious reader. There's always a pile of books on my night table (although for the time being, I'm busy brushing up on my Japanese). I'm eager to hear about your favorites and introduce you to my new publishers, Mark Batty and Penguin USA... so I sent out the White Rabbit to trumpet that this shall be Book Week!
For the first time, I've teamed up with a feisty clothing company, Evil Kitty, to give away two prizes. After all, there's nothing like snuggling up with your kitty and a good book... while wearing a red-hot hoody (above)! At the end of this post, I'll tell you how you can get your paws on one of these bad cats.
I'm still digesting the news that I'll be publishing Cooking Cute under Perigee, an imprint of Penguin USA. It's an honor to be under the same umbrella as my literary heroes: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, TS Eliot, Herman Hesse, Rudyard Kipling, Kurt Vonnegut, and Roald Dahl. Above are three Penguin must-reads: Sherlock Holmes' debut in A Study In Scarlet, a collection of Edward Gorey's works, and Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange.
(Have you seen the film? It's a dystopic delight! I think of my future self as a Yoko Ono type who spends her days in complicated yoga poses while surrounded by Basils… not too much of a stretch from my current life, actually.)
Penguin has a whole shelf dedicated to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Here are two recent interpretations; you'll recognize the Mad Hatter and March Hare's tea party, and Alice hitting the ceiling of the White Rabbit's house.
Penguin is known for creatively re-releasing iconic novels. Rashomon, a collection of short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) that inspired Kurosawa's film, is repackaged with a manga-style cover and an intro by Haruki Murakami. Count Dracula rises from the dead through the illustrations of Marvel Comics' Jae Lee. And Daniel Clowes, the mastermind behind Ghost World, contributes the cover art for Mary Shelley’s timeless Gothic novel.
I'm always asking my friends for book recommendations, and I want to hear from you. How's this for motivation - you can win a feisty feline hoody or T-shirt from Lidia Wachowska's Goth clothing company, Evil Kitty! To enter, just leave a blog comment: tell me a book title you love and why. I’ll count one entry per person, per Book Week post (meaning you'll have chances to enter all week). Next Monday, my kitty Basil Farrow will pick the winner... and we'll show you the results via video. So comment away! (You can squint at the fine print after the jump.)
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