What's happening with Susan?

The Front Page News

And even more Bloggingheads!

I had a great time talking to Elizabeth Gilbert in our great Meryl Streep/Julia Roberts Smackdown. Sorry I look like I'm smeared with Vaseline -- the lighting director (me) messed up and has been fired.

CD WOW!

For my European friends... here are links for ordering two of my books through CD WOW:

The Orchid Thief

Lazy Little Loafers

Chickens! Chickens!

Last night, I spoke at Boston's Museum of Science about backyard chickens. I shared the stage with five chickens -- two Polish, two New Hampshire reds, and a little bantam Leghorn -- and I learned a few valuable pieces of information:
1. Animals always steal the show.
2. Chickens are a lot noisier than most people think.
3. If chickens are on stage in a pen that doesn't have a netting over it, they will hop out of it and squawk and kick the sawdust around and squawk some more. It's pretty funny. If you are the person giving the lecture, the best thing to do is to cede the floor to the chickens and let them carry on.
4. People love chickens.

The Wall Street Journal did a little piece about the event here: Author Susan Orlean Becomes a Chicken Person

The whole evening was a blast. I might have to include chickens in all future appearances.

Martha Stewart

The perils of television: Yesterday, I was on MARTHA STEWART, talking about travel. In one segment, I showed a pair of handmade scissors and a bell I got from an elderly farmer in Bhutan. I talked about how I had traded him one of my business cards for the items. I'd like to clarify something: I misspoke on the show -- I paid the gentleman for the scissors and bell, and then also gave him my business card. The point I was trying to make is that giving someone a personal item, such as a photograph or business card or personal object of some kind, is a meaningful exchange that goes beyond giving money. As I said later in the show, when you travel you ask people to allow you to observe their lives, and it seems fair to offer them a way to observe your life a bit too, rather than only giving money. I regret that I spoke in a way that made it sound like I didn't even give him some payment for those objects -- it was the sort of misstatement that occurs when you're on television, a little nervous, and talking with the awareness of having almost no time at all.

I've spent my entire career working to bring humanity and empathy to my subjects. When I travel, I keep those principles not only in mind, but the very front of my mind. Not only do I pay fairly (and happily) for any goods or services I use, I also try to offer something beyond that -- a connection that is more personal. When I write, my entire goal is to illuminate and celebrate the people I've met -- especially the not-famous, not-wealthy, not-celebrated. I really regret saying anything that seemed to contradict that, especially because it was inaccurate.

Catch Me if You Can

Follow me on the road -- or better yet, stop by and say hi! Click on the event for more info.

Talk, Talk

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Atlantic Wire

I tallied up my reading habits here recently for The Atlantic Wire, the website of the Atlantic Magazine. I'm honestly shocked by how quickly I've moved from newspaper and magazine to iPhone and Internet. Where will this end up, I wonder? It's happening so quickly -- the move to electronic publishing, that is -- that I think the landscape will be different a year from now, and vastly different five years from now. In the meantime, though, I'll just keep writing and reading, whatever form it's in.

More bloggingheads!

I had a great time talking to Walter Kirn, author of "Up in the Air"; we compared the slightly surreal out-of-body experience of having one's written work transformed into a movie. You can watch the whole thing here:

Bloggingheads!

I had a great time talking with my friend Kurt Andersen about Twitter, computer screens, chickens, and Joseph Mitchell on blogginheads.tv -- take a look: