Do I live under a rock?

James Frey.

No idea who he was until yesterday, when PlanetDan's favorite book of the year was written by him (My Friend Leonard). Then, another blogger from Mpls had this as her top book of 2005. Then today at lunch, one of the Men at Work asked if anyone had read A Million Little Pieces. No one had. I had no clue who the dude was and all of a sudden he's top of mind for everyone.

I read a blog somewhere where a guy commented "Why is everyone on the subway reading the same book???" and then he found out it's an Oprah book and then he damned Oprah's Book Club. It's similar with this - I checked Amazon and found that A Million Little Pieces is indeed an Oprah book. But PlanetDan's selection is not. I think I'll add both to my request list and wait 6 months till they come available to find out what's the big deal about Mr. James Frey.

UPDATE: A Million Little Pieces is being made into a movie. And set in MN. Now you know.