Soup and Salad: 3-D Gatsby, Libraries of the Rich and Famous, The Sherlockians, The Story Prize, Snooki Booki

On today's menu:

1.  This just in from the Please-Just-Make-It-Stop Dept.:  What do Yogi Bear and F. Scott Fitzgerald have in common?  Apart from the obvious love of peanut-butter-and-anchovy sandwiches, the Jazz Age writer may soon join the Jellystone bruin in the realm of 3-D movies.  That's if director Baz Luhrmann has his way with the filming of The Great Gatsby.  As the Los Angeles Times tells us, Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge) has grandiose plans for the film, no matter what the dimension: "People will need an explanation of where we are and where we've been, and 'The Great Gatsby' can provide that explanation," he said.  The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan who, we can only pray, will be a little less wooden than Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.  The New York Times defends Luhrmann's film against its book-loving critics:

...a “Gatsby” movie needs a director who isn’t interested in worshipful fidelity, who doesn’t even to try to translate the book’s endless unfilmable aspects into celluloid, and who makes the most of the cinematic side of “Gatsby” instead — the lifestyles of the rich and famous backdrop, the dialogue and repartee, the boorishly entertaining secondary characters (from Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson to Meyer Wolfshiem and the man in owl-eyed spectacles), the big physical set-pieces (parties, fights, car crashes, murder) and the whole wild Jazz Age ambience.

Yeah, okay.  But 3-D?  Really?  If I wasn't convinced of the gimmick's added value to films by the latest Tron, then what's going to get me into a theater to watch a flapper's dress reach out and smack me in the face?

2.  Ever wonder what the libraries of Oprah, Rod Stewart, and Greta Garbo look like?  No?  Neither did I, but this gallery of heavy-laden bookcases at Flavorwire is an interesting tour of homes belonging to Those Who Are Not Like The Rest of Us.  That's fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's overpowering collection pictured above.

3.  The game is afoot in three new books surrounding the mysteries which surround the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.  Yvonne Zipp sorts out all the elementary details in her review at The Washington Post.  Graham Moore's The Sherlockian is already high on my list of to-reads.  Who can resist a mystery that sees Arthur Conan Doyle persuading Bram Stoker to be his Watson?

4.  The Story Prize finalists have been announced:  Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li, and Death is Not an Option by Suzanne Rivecca.  Congratulations to all three whose books were selected out of a pile of 85 other short story collections to compete for the $20,000 prize.

5.  And dubious congratulations go out to Washington, D.C. which tops the rankings of "most literate cities" in the United States.  No matter what Sarah Palin says, youse guys in the Capitol City aren't stoopid.

6.  Speaking of which, am I the only one who thinks this vlog of Ross Everett at a Snooki book signing is hilarious?  Everett talked to crazy-eyed (and crazier-haired) fans standing in line at a Los Angeles Barnes and Noble waiting to have their book signed by the Jersey Shore "star."  To say they were all a-tremble would be an understatement.  You'll either find Everett funny or sand-in-your-crotch irritating.  Me, I'll admit I laughed out loud when he asked a girl how drunk she was "on a scale of one to Mel Gibson."