You're onto something there, M. K.. Since so many serial killers (Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, anyone?) were 'into' Catcher, I'd half-wonder about any boy who pulled that out of his jeans. Did the advertisers mention anything about actual reading being involved in this endeavor? Or the ability to discuss the book with some measure of subtlety and understanding? Or is this just another tedious sale of books based on their covers?

Hoho! Never thought of that. Not only do you have to be a lit critic so you know which neurosis or criminality the boy is reading, but how can a girl seperate the posers from the real litrates? Though it is true that without a prop, it is even harder to figure it out. Last year, on airplanes, I finished off about 10 Grishams (I lost count) - between movies (which were not of my choosing since I didn't fly business classy) what does that mean about me?

Using sex to sell books in the video age is like using sex to sell bus passes -- ain't gonna work because there's not enough zing in the product. On the other hand, if GW Bush can get re-elected, maybe enough media CAN sell anything.

Very witty, Shannon. It's a sad state of affairs to see Penguin descend to this level of marketing... the literati dressed up as glitterati.

Yes, but it isn't about what you read, or how you pass time on the airplanes, is it? Why on earth would a man with no interest in reading want to attract a well-read woman by using books as bait? That would be like me investing in a pair of football shoes to attract a player. The minute I get out onto the field and start showing off my big moves, the fellow's going to have to think there's something wrong with this picture. How stupid can a marketer get, I ask you? Or a fellow who gets suckered in by it?

Women like Men who are either good looking or rich or preferably both. Men like women who are good looking and willing to put out. Yes it really is that simple...

The crass ones do go for looks, wealth and a nice itchy case of STDs, a cynic might suppose. There's naught lost then, is there?

I'm printing this and showing it to my class. Finally, a sure-fire way to get boys to read.

If this campaign can actually motivate someone to contemplate the written word as something worth their pause in time, then way to Penguin for taking the classical way to man's heart - through his mating prospects. I have to agree though - not that I find men who are Jane Austin or Bronte sisters die hard fans (that would actually make me wary of something amiss) irristable - but any guy who has a decent vocabulary, can spout words of Rumi at a whim, and is in line to buy Jon Stewarts new best seller - will definitely have my undivided interest. There is nothing as alluring as gazing deep into one's eyes and seeing comprehension - a rare treat indeed.

I can see it now: "My God, my spouse has left me for a book!"

I agree with shirin: Gazing into someone's eyes and seeing comprehension IS a rare treat. Not to sound arrogant or better though, it is not the trained mind that makes the difference, it is the view into other conditions of being that certain book-reader combinations can give. The gaze of comprehension comes through acceptance and empathy, without which no amount of retained info and reading-muscles can be of use. So it would make a big difference which book the dude or dudette is posing with. If your spouse leaves you for a book, that must make you pretty boring and lifeless, or them. Either way it might not be such a big loss.

shirin and karassowitsch, I hope someday we have an opportunity to cross paths. To hear from fellow book-lovers is a fine thing. I don't mean for my posts to sound daft. If a marketing campaign based on sexual allure brings more avid readers to the table, then all the power to it. If it's just about tarting up the ego in a fancier brand of Christmas wrap, then it will fall flat on its sorry face. All the best to you.

Speaking as a guy who read a book once, I like the idea that it might get me laid. The fact that it's a penguin only mkes the idea more intriguing.

The cynic in me thinks there's a world of difference between a person who publicly flashes a copy of, oh, say Plato's The Republic or Helen Fielding's BJ Diaries or whatever, in the hopes of attracting whatever it is that person seeks in the way of sensual gratification, and the person who actually reads (anything). But hey, if it sparks a discussion that aspect should be fairly easy to suss out in time to take wing and flee. It's still a stupid promo vehicle for publishers like Penguin. (And Shannon's Swiftian take is still funnier than the droll "litter ahtea" and his fetish for flightless birds...)

Unless that book is being held at an angle so that the guy is showing off a pair of triceps-to-be-admired (better than my own even), it wouldn't matter a hoot to me... ok, so I'm a bit shallow in that regard- it's just that I like the active AND smart ones, don't need to be rich. If a guy has a dog-- 1000 points extra :)

Kurt - I too was concerned for the penguin that the litter of ahtea has developed a penchant for - they (the penguins) are now officially on the endangered species list - and I don't think the type of speciation that the litter bug is speculating on is the type the world wildlife foundation would endorse. Nonetheless, the bottom line is not the quantity - nor even the quality of the written word read - but it's the assimilated insight achieved from such experience - be it passively or actively acquired. Having said that, after all such intellectual pruning if he still comes out as a brutish right-wing neo-con member of the CRAP camp - or their respective mirrored misery depicted by the Republicans in the U.S. (identified as the red states holding guns in one hand and a cross in another - and a bottle of prozac decorating both) - I fear any tingly feeling of warmth would doused at first verb. Very effective birth control to be sure.

David Frum not only reads but he writes too. Is he "good-booking"? :) I assume what's being read is important? So Dostoyevsky is good but an economics or historical book is make-the-sign-of-the-cross-and-back-away?

Fi - does this angle suit your needs: http://www.anvari.org/fun/Political/Bush_Reading_Upside_Down. html

Haha...I love that pic... but I read a headline a few days ago that Bush is out of shape; or was I imagining that?

Dear Fi, 1000 points for a dog? What if a guy's only got a penguin? They're not so bad you know. They're very deep. Dirk Gently sez that the subconsious mind is used for storing penguins. Check it out.

Click once to make the penguin drop, then click once to bat. Have fun! http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf

Cheez LA, if I click on that penguin link, will I catch something itchy?

No Fi, that headline was definitely a typo. What the editor meant to write was "Bush has snout of Ape." Not exactly news to the rest of us, but for the editor, it could've been an epiphany.

I scanned it this afternoon. Nothing itchy there. Just unconsious penguin storage.

No opposite points of view here; I ended up marrying a guy who was reading Spider Robinson while sitting in the mall. I went home with him to see his printings - turns out we were compatable by literature. Best call I ever made. One note - if you see him reading, make him read it out loud to you. He could be bluffing.

I started an organization three years ago that entices men to read by giving away books via a female task force. I approached the Penguin marketing department asking for book donations...didn't get any...but wasn't too surprised when I read about Good Booking launching this summer...www.chicksdigbooks.com

What a joke. I'll be the first to admit that a man reading a good book is always enticing but word of warning, don't just make him read it out loud. I suggest a deep probe into other reading material. More than once I've been drawn to men who are reading a book only to find out (shortly after first contact) that it's the only thing they've read.

Oh, how true. And check the sidetable beside the bed. And under the mattress. You'll find out what he "reads" late at night. You may also want to find out if he really does read the articles.