O'Reilly's Naughty Bedtime Story Sweeps Web

Three very different English translations available to get you caught up

(NEWSER) - Japan is celebrating the 1,000th birthday of The Tale of Genji, a story penned by a woman in an imperial court that is widely regarded as the first modern novel, the Economist reports. The chronicle of an aristocratic aesthete’s sexual adventures is many things to many readers, including conservative commentators who point to Japan’s cultural sophistication over Europe’s and feminists inspired by the female author. More»

Hustler publisher will delve into affairs of state

(NEWSER) - Porn king Larry Flynt is turning to a slightly more academic topic: presidents. Well, the sex lives of presidents, to be exact. The Hustler publisher is writing One Nation Under Sex, an “academically sourced” history of White House seductions. Gawker got a look at the proposal, and it includes important historical info like “George Washington was a famous swordsman in more ways than one” and “How did this president from Pennsylvania become so proslavery? In two words: Gay Love.” More»

Nick Hornby, Judy Blume, and more weigh in

(NEWSER) - What was the best book of the year? Salon asked Nick Hornby, Junot Diaz, Curtis Sittenfeld, and other people with better literary credentials than ours what they enjoyed in 2009. Their responses are in the photo gallery. More»

You can look smart, but still get your fill of juicy sex

(NEWSER) - Paulina Porizkova “quit school at 15 to live off of my looks,” but she’s also a lifelong bookworm, she writes for Modelinia. Because she feels “the need to constantly prove I’m not some dumb model,” she offers up her “summer reading for folks who want to seem kinda smart”:

• A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth: Not only is this 1,488-page tome full of “good ol’ sex and drama,” you’ll learn all about India’s customs, politics, and religion.

Once Oprah's enemy, now Christians'?

(NEWSER) - James Frey pissed off a lot of people—including Oprah—when his “memoir” A Million Little Pieces was exposed as fictional—but his new book might spark even more ire. Illumination: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible features a Messiah who marries gays, impregnates a teen, and later takes her to have an abortion—and compares the Old and New Testaments to comic books, the New York Post reports. More»