Craig Ferguson's American kilt

Last week, Craig Ferguson beat Jimmy Fallon in the late-night race for the first time. What put him over the top? Could it have been his recent memoir, "American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot"?

Eh, probably not.

Nevertheless, the book is a charming read. Unlike some in Hollywood, Ferguson writes his own books -- he published a novel, "Between the Bridge and the River," in 2006. And this memoir is, not surprisingly, full of the same humor Ferguson displays on "The Late Late Show."

"I don't say this to impress you, but I was a bed wetter until I was around eleven years old," he writes, continuing:

Then I stopped, but not for long. I started drinking alcohol regularly when I was in my early teens, at which point I returned to intermittent bed-wetting until I was 29. I haven't peed myself since the 18th of February, 1992, the day I got sober. Therefore I suppose I was a bed wetter until I was almost thirty. But I did stop before I was thirty, and I think my family and the people of Scotland should take a great deal of pride in that.

Ferguson outlines his childhood in Scotland (in a grim suburban development), his school years (undistinguished) and his career as a punk-rock drummer (intermittently successful and dissolute). Then came the comedy, which took off with his inappropriate character Bing Hitler.

Although this isn't a recovery memoir, there is a lot of drinking, because he did a lot of drinking. There are wild tales interspersed with nights (or weeks) where he has nothing to tell because he'd blacked out. He manages to avoid the trap of seeing his drinking as tragically glamorous, portrays it (without nostalgia) as both disastrous and fun. He survived it -- he might not have -- but his first marriage did not.

If Ferguson appears more candid about his early failures and successes than he is about his current late show life, it may be because he's so open about his past. He's self-deprecating without being self-pitying and shows little nostalgia for what's left behind. About his present, he details some public events -- including the decision to eulogize his father on his show, a risk that endeared him to many viewers -- but he's a bit quieter about the decision to switch agents or the daily task of putting on the show. He probably shouldnt' say too much -- he's still working in Hollywood.

And he's a true Southern California immigrant. "I proudly took the Oath of Allegiance and received my citizenship," he writes, "at Pomona Fairgrounds in Los Angeles in January 2008 along with three thousand other new Americans from Mexico, and no others from Scotland."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Mark von Holden / Getty Images

Stephenie Meyer emerges to appear on 'Oprah' today

Stephenie Meyer, author of the wildly popular "Twilight" series, will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" this afternoon (the show broadcasts at 4 p.m. in many markets). The television appearance is a rare one for the author, who apologizes to fans on her website for "doing the hermit thing this last year."

Meyer is being lured out by the shine of "New Moon." The second film to feature Robert Pattinson as vampire Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan opens wide on Nov. 20. Meyer writes on her website, "I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what [director] Chris Weitz has done with 'New Moon' that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him."

Earlier this week, serious "Twilight" fans submitted their too-specific-for-Oprah's-show questions to Meyer through the Twilight Saga website, which will be posting her answers on Monday.

Oprah will be the only talk show host to get time with Meyer, apparently; she writes that she's doing only this one interview. After that, she'll slip back into the dark.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photos: Stephenie Meyer, credit: Vince Bucci/Getty Images. Oprah Winfrey, credit: Warren Toda/ EPA

Paul Shaffer knows what to spill -- and not -- in his memoir

Paul Shaffer has shared the stage with so many big names that it's probably easier to list the stars he hasn't worked with. How many television sidekicks can boast to having played with both Andy Kaufman and his alter-ego, Tony Clifton? Such is the musical career of the lovably nebbish keyboardist from Thunder Bay, Ontario, who has tickled the ivories alongside James Brown, most of Led Zeppelin, three-quarters of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and countless others.

In his new book "We'll Be Here For The Rest Of Our Lives," the affable Shaffer hopscotches through his storied career, telling tales of working in Toronto with many of the first SCTV comedians before they were stars (Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Martin Short), moving to New York to play for Jim Steinem, the songwriter behind Meatloaf's hits, as well as with Doug Henning, and throwing in with "Saturday Night Live" (then called simply "Saturday Night") right as it was debuting.

It was at "SNL" that Shaffer collaborated with the likes of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. As musical director, part of Shaffer's duties was to work with the writers on special musical bits which is where the Blues Brothers first came to be. In the book Shaffer explains that the blues numbers were originally intended to be sung by Belushi wearing a bumble bee costume. But because the outfit was cumbersome and irritating to the star -- and to the other members of the band who were also forced to wear the costume -- Aykroyd and Belushi took it upon themselves one night to change into the iconic black suits as they warmed up the audience. It's in the middle of the book that Shaffer explains that the duo's style was influenced indirectly by a famous author.

"Why the dark suits and dark glasses?" I ask [Belushi].

"I was hipped to the look by Fred Kaz," says John, "the beatnik musical director at Second City in Chicago. He's the cat who told me that junkies always wore straight-looking outfits so they could pass. Check out William Burroughs."

If there's one glaring omission in the book it's the relative absence of any truly inside tales about the TV stints that most people relate him to: "Late Night with David Letterman" and "Late Show with David Letterman." Despite the fact that the book was written well before the latest drama involving Letterman's affairs, one would think that if you work with a guy for 27 years there'd be more than just a few pages about that relationship. But since the pair still work together, and seeing as how Letterman is Shaffer's boss, perhaps one reason that the keyboardist is still employed (and universally loved by so many celebs) is because he knows what to talk about -- and more importantly -- what not to spill.

Which isn't to say there aren't any insights in the memoir. We learn that Shaffer is such a huge fan of James Brown that he bought one of his Hammond organs; we discover that while on the road with the Blues Brothers the bespectacled musician had a dalliance with "sweet, sweet Connie" from the Grand Funk Railroad classic "We're an American Band"; and we learn that Andy Kaufman may have had an impostor sing as Tony Clifton on "Late Night."

Although the tales may not be gossip-rag juicy, they are interesting and involve many of the top names in music. And if one aside becomes tiresome, simply turn the page, Shaffer seems to always have one more chestnut from his Zelig-ish career in late night tv and music.

-- Tony Pierce

Video: Paul Shaffer interviewed at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times

Alton Brown's book tour leads to Costco

Alton Brown has been hosting his popular "Good Eats" show on the Food Network for 10 years now. He combines genuine goofiness with educated enthusiasm for food. He's hosted other TV shows, too, and written books before. Now "Good Eats: The Early Years" is on shelves, with 140 recipes, dynamic layout and recent promo appearances on the "Today" show and "The View." So where's he going to be on book tour today?

Costco.

Most authors are willing go anywhere readers are. And apparently in San Diego, readers are heading to a discount store to pick up 24-packs of chicken breasts.

Maybe it's not as weird as it sounds. Costco sells food and books (admittedly, it also has cat litter, patio furniture, shaving cream, tubs of mayonnaise, batteries, Wild Turkey by the gallon, athletic socks and almost any other consumer good you can imagine, but bear with me). Not many places sell both books and food. Sure, there are cafes and coffee shops connected to bookstores -- but is there any other store that makes it a point to sell food and books?

Brown has written a book for people who like to eat. And, presumably, to watch his show on TV. Wait a minute -- Costco also sells TVs. It's starting to make sense after all.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Alton Brown. Credit: Gregory Smith / Associated Press

Slaughterhouse 90210: Where high meets low

Slaugterhouse 90210, a tumblr blog and column at Details, takes images from pop culture and captions them, hysterically, with literary quotes. A picture of Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) from "Miami Vice" is accompanied by Milan Kundera: "The only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other" ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being"). And so on.

Perhaps the image above would be captioned, "Laboring through a world every day more stultified, which expected salvation in codes and governments, ever more willing to settle for suburban narratives and diminished payoffs -- what were the chances of finding anyone else seeking to transcend that, and not even particularly aware of it?" (Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"). But that's just me, and I don't hold a candle to Maris Kreizman. She's the 31-year-old New Yorker who is the true genius behind Slaughterhouse 90210. 

Jacket Copy: Did you really start with just Vonnegut and "90210"?

Maris Kreizman: I knew I wanted to start a blog that featured my favorite literary quotes, but I thought that quotes alone would be a bit too precious or boring. And I have always been a connoisseur of crappy TV. So I figured what better way to indulge my guilty pleasures than by pairing them with more high-minded fare?

Once I had the idea, I needed to come up with the perfect name to convey that high/low juxtaposition. Fortunately, my co-workers are very skilled at wordplay. Some rejected blog names: Third Rock From the Sun Also Rises, How I Met Your Motherless Brooklyn, My So-Called Life of Pi. Once I finally settled on the name, the tagline came naturally. And I do happen to use a lot of Vonnegut and "90210" on the blog, so it fits.

JC: Do you usually begin with the literary quote or with a photo?

MK: It depends. I keep a list of shows and characters I eventually want to feature, and I'll keep them in mind when scanning for quotes. I am still trying to find the perfect quote that just screams "Charles in Charge." I think I should look into Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" for that.

Meanwhile, sometimes I come across a great book passage, and I spend hours searching Google Images to try to find the characters that embody it. Like, I knew there was a Miranda July quote I wanted to use that was about people who date outside their own size groups. It took a few tries (Jim & Pam, Carrie & Mr. Big) before I settled on a more fanciful interpretation: Kermit and Miss Piggy.

JC: Do you find yourself running on a theme – say, several pictures from "Diff’rent Strokes" or a series of quotes from Tolstoy?

MK: I try my best not to duplicate shows or authors within a single week. However, some shows have such great casts and so much subtext that they lend themselves to frequent postings: "Mad Men," "Freaks & Geeks" and "Arrested Development" are a few of my go-tos. I'm also really influenced by the books I'm currently reading. When I read Kate Christensen's "The Great Man" I wanted to quote every single sentence because each and every character description was so spot-on. I think I limited myself to three.

JC: Where do you find the quotes – do you have books of them, or do they pop into your head, or something else?

MK: I have a little secret: Good Reads. Good Reads has a section of users' favorite quotes, and you can search all quotes by key word and by theme. It ends up being much more current and fresh than your standard Bartlett's. When I wanted to use a photo of Tim Gunn, I was able to search for the term "elegant" and find a bunch of quotes that applied. The winner was a Louisa May Alcott quote that captured Gunn to a T. (Another confession: I haven't read every book I quote -- I've read about half of them. I just bought a copy of Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" because I figured that I'd quoted so much of it that it was time to actually read the whole thing!)

JC: What kind of reactions have you gotten? Have you found that matching up literature with TV (and movies) leaves anyone baffled?

MK: The feedback has been generally positive. It's been great to see how many book worms there are who also have a soft spot for pop culture.  I think the bafflement really only comes when people can't immediately recognize the TV show in the post. My father, for instance, never really gets my "One Tree Hill" references.

JC: When you were in high school, what did you do more: read books or watch TV? Did you ever read books WHILE watching TV?

MK: I did A LOT of both. I still do. And I'm proud to say that Brenda Walsh  and Jerry Seinfeld and Alex P. Keaton informed my way of thinking just as much as Sylvia Plath or Margaret Atwood did.

JC: Is there anything that you’d not lampoon?

MK: Probably not -- watch out, Fox News hosts. ...

But many of my posts aren't meant to lampoon -- they're more like tributes. For instance, my very first post was a photo of Logan and Veronica from "Veronica Mars," whom I paired with a quote from Elizabeth McCracken's "The Giant's House." It was just a pure appreciation of my favorite TV characters and my favorite book.

I'm still looking for the perfect quote by Elisa Albert to pair with a scene from "Six Feet Under." Elisa was the first author whose works I acquired when I was an editor at Free Press, and I think she and Claire Fischer are soul sisters in terms of their ability to find humor in dark places. I'm glad my blog allows me to show my appreciation for some of my favorite sharp-tongued women.

Photo: "Friends," Season 1, 1994-95. Credit: Warner Bros.

The books of 'Lost' and TV-inspired book clubs

Critics habitually lambaste TV for dumbing down American society: And though some may find that point hard to refute, a handful of noteworthy shows present evidence to the contrary, as literary classics, carefully placed in episodes, have created positive outcomes.

Literary references in film and TV are nothing new. In fact, it is long thought that Gene Roddenberry modeled the original “Star Trek” TV series on Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels.”

"Lost" and "Mad Men," two of TV's most highly regarded shows, not only have given books a higher profile by prominently featuring works of literature in their storylines, but they also have spawned numerous virtual book clubs. Members are mulling over and dissecting heavyweight reads such as "Ulysses" and "Catch 22" for clues to the plot or insight into a particular character.

There’s no hidden agenda or mission to raise the literary IQ of viewers, at least not over at ABC, where "Lost" executive producers and writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse insist they are not trying to force literature down people's throats.

"It’s really more about the fact that we’ve been influenced by literature in the way we’ve shaped the show, and it’s a nod to that process," said Lindelof, who is also co-creator. "We pick the books with a great deal of meticulous thought and specificity and talk about what the thematic implications of picking a certain book are, why we’re using it in the scene and what we want the audience to deduce from that choice."

More from "Lost" and "Mad Men" after the jump

Oh Brady! Maureen McCormick on book tour

For two or three or more generations of American TV-watching kids, Maureen McCormick's Marcia Brady was the perfect blond girl we aspired to be (or to date). She was lithe and popular, somehow grew from adolescent to teenager without a moment of awkwardness, had the coolest halter tops and, until that one fateful football-tossing day, the perfect nose.

OK, her nose was always perfect. It was only broken in the TV-pretend world of The Brady Bunch, not the real world.

Despite her five years as a Brady, Maureen McCormick has always been a real human being, living in the real world. Others have trouble making that distinction, though; for a recent birthday, she recalls in her new memoir "Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My Own Voice," reporters asked how Marcia Brady felt about turning 50:

Politely, I reminded them that Marcia Brady was still a teenager, but I, Maureen, created not in Sherwood Schwartz's imagination but in the womb of Irene McCormick, felt OK about it.

In her book, she has revealed some personal, slightly scandalous details: drug use, visits to the Playboy mansion, a passionate kiss with Greg Barry Williams while filming the Brady's Hawaii episode. The confusion of the real and Brady worlds affected her, too -- during the kiss, "a part of me — a tiny part, admittedly — said to myself, 'Oh my God! I'm kissing my brother. What am I doing?'"

McCormick is currently on book tour; she's got two California dates coming up, including a visit to the Sherman Oaks Barnes & Noble, about a 40-minute drive from the North Hollywood Brady house.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: A fan poses with Maureen McCormick at Book People in Austin. Credit: Farmerchris via Twitpic

Do books belong with the 'rubbish' on TV?

Top German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, who hosted a literary TV talk show for more than a decade, was recently presented with a lifetime achievement award by German television -- and his response was highly critical. From the report by The Guardian: 

"I don't belong here among all this rubbish," the 88-year-old critic and author said from the stage of the annual German Television Awards gala in Cologne. "I have been given many literature prizes in my life, but I don't belong in this lineup. If the prize was linked with money, I would have given the cash back too."

The program's startled host invited Reich-Ranicki onto his own show, which the critic accepted. He also took the award with him when he left.

In America, book coverage is only a fraction of what gets seen on TV, but throwing around words like "rubbish" would be a mistake. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart may host fake news shows, but they consistently include authors among their rosters of guests.

This week, guests on Stewart's "The Daily Show" will be a comedian, a former White House press secretary and two economists. Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg columnist and author of  "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression" is tonight's guest; on Thursday, it'll be Robert Reich, former Labor secretary and the author of "Supercapitalism."

"The Colbert Report" has categorized the types of guests that have appeared on the show. There have been 79 celebrities, 97 journalists, 128 experts, 148 political figures and 254 authors. These aren't just the politicians and political observers you might expect; there also have been novelists (Junot Diaz, Salman Rushdie) and scientists (Janna Levin, Jared Diamond). And of the hundreds of author videos that have been archived, cultural critic Clive James' is the 10th most watched on the Colbert website. Not rubbish at all.

--Carolyn Kellogg

After the jump: Sarah Vowell, author of "The Wordy Shipmates," on "The Daily Show." She'll be appearing in Pasadena on Thursday.

Sex and the City goes to high school

When you hear "Carrie Bradshaw," you probably picture Sarah Jessica Parker parading down a New York street in a pair of Manolos and a crazy-fashionable dress. But maybe it's time to flash back to the sweater-vested, bespectacled Parker from the television series "Square Pegs" -- because a new Carrie Bradshaw is coming: the high school version.

Author Candace Bushnell, who wrote the original "Sex and the City" column for the New York Observer -- which, just like in the TV show, later became a book -- will pen a new Carrie Bradshaw novel for young adults (Variety reports there will be two). The tentative title is "The Carrie Diaries."

The NY Observer talked to two editors involved with the project, digging for details. "It hasn’t all been resolved yet," editor Donna Bray told the paper. "I think she'll come here [to Manhattan] the way Candace did, with her friends, to hang out in the city on the weekend, and have a lot of social interaction there, and then eventually she’ll come to college here, as Candace did."

Will the teenage Carrie have a core group of good girlfriends, as the adult Carrie did? Will the teenage Carrie be as spiffy a fashionista? What will her parents be like -- did we ever glimpse them on the show? Will she have to go to gym? Will she be a cheerleader? Work on the school paper?

These were not the questions the Observer recorded asking. They went straight for the sex:

Asked if Ms. Bushnell was planning to write about Carrie losing her virginity, Ms. Balzer and Ms. Bray said they weren’t sure. Pub Crawl checked it out, though, and there’s a story for the telling. If the universe of the books is consistent with the universe of the show — and it very well may not be — readers should anticipate a scene featuring an 11th-grade Carrie sharing "half a joint" with one Seth Bateman and then doing it with him on the Ping-Pong table in his "smelly rec room." At least this is how Carrie describes her origin story to Charlotte in episode 38, "The Big Time."

Sounds like she was a little cooler than "Square Pegs'" Patty Greene -- but not much.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Sante D'Orazio / HBO

Dick Cavett and his literary lions

Dick Cavett's talk shows ran on TV when I was too young to catch them, so I'm coming to them through his DVD sets. In the last of the "Rock Icons" DVDs -- the one in which he talks (separately) to Stevie Wonder, George Harrison and Paul Simon -- he gets literary.

It was Sept. 5, 1974: The talk-show host, having just published his memoir "Cavett," puts himself in the TV interview seat. Writers Jerzy Kosinski, Anthony Burgess and Barbara Howar get to interview him. Poor Cavett barely gets a word in.

Burgess, best known for "A Clockwork Orange," seems to be nominally in charge, sitting next to Cavett and waving his cigarillo. Despite having the worst comb-over of the 20th century (had he just climbed off a yacht with a terrible tailwind?), the British author is quite charming, and he at least makes an effort to stick to the plan and ask Cavett some questions.

Burgess: I want to ask you a very fundamental question, and before I ask it I'm going to answer it myself, on my own terms. People have asked me, why do you write books. And my answer is I write books for a living, because there's no other job I can do successfully, or with any measure of expertise. Obviously, you have another kind of living. Therefore, why do you write this book?

[Cavett digresses briefly into the subject of money-making, then continues.]

Cavett: I seem to have evaded your question. . . . I guess I wanted the experience of knowing what it is like to get something down the way you want it, rather than the frustration of when you're on television, everything is sort of off the top of your head. It's ad-lib. . . . It's sometimes better than you thought, sometimes worse, never quite the way you planned. I somehow envied writers, the idea that you can get a thing and finish it the way you want it, then pass it on.

This idea, that a book is a perfect, finished form, might not sit well with all writers. But compared with taped television -- which, in the early 1970s, was broadcast and then (seemingly) disappeared -- books had a definite staying power. Now, with DVDs, perhaps it's the other way around. Cavett and Kosinski have an interesting conversation about this kind of permanence -- an excerpt is after the jump.

Burgess goes on to posit that Cavett might have been making a "shy attempt" to pursue literary ambitions, but before he can answer, Howar, a Washington socialite who wrote the bestselling memoir "Laughing All the Way" and little else, jumps in and answers for him. Cavett's literary ambitions did eventually include a second book -- 1983's "Eye on Cavett." These days -- what else? -- he blogs.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo of Dick Cavett and Anthony Burgess from the DVD "Dick Cavett: Rock Icons" from Shout Factory