Bloglander

In the Oct. 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly, "The Bullseye" ("pop culture news that was right on target this week"), the paperback release of The Financial Lives of the Poets lost out to The Scarlet Letter.

Well, actually, to a movie parody of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel that they made you read in high school -- namely, Easy A, starring Emma Stone.

That's pretty high-falutin' literary company. Walter's novel was closer to the center of our collective pop-culture consciousness than any other item on the chart. (Though we admit that when the periphery is occupied by the likes of La (hiccup) Lohan and that empty-suit-full-of-snoot from Project Runway, Tim Gunn, it must not be that difficult a target to hit.)

And if all that isn't enough to persuade you to pick up a copy of Walter's funny satiric novel, then check out the additional material in the back, where Luke Baumgarten's Inlander cover story on Walter appears.