The New York Daily News reported yesterday on a smirk-inducing literary phenomenon: the celebrity novel. Starting as a discussion on Nicole Richie’s thinly veiled roman à clef and gossip rag of a novel, The Truth About Diamonds, it examines the popularity of the phenomenon among both wannabe writers with Hollywood addresses (including everyone from Ethan Hawke to Joan Collins, Ivana Trump, and Pamela Anderson) and, predictably, among readers. And to be fair, the article even points out how many people — critics and literary snobs among them — want to see celebrities’ books fail. But reading through an excerpt of Richie’s novel about a spoiled, rich girl and her spoiled, rich friends, one gets the impression that snobs don’t have to will books like hers to fail. They do so of their own accord.

Related links:
Click here for the New York Daily News article
Click here for an excerpt from The Truth About Diamonds