Writer Weathers Storm

You can forgive Seattle writer Erik Larson for not reading Sebastian Junger’s book “The Perfect Storm.”

Larson was six months into researching his own storm book when Junger’s riveting account of the 1991 North Atlantic tempest first hit the best-seller lists.

“I was so stunned and horrified, thinking that it might be my own hurricane,” Larson said in a recent phone call. “I never quite got over the shock, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it since.”

Larson’s storm was not Junger’s. Instead, Larson wrote about the devastating 1900 hurricane that struck the North American coast at Galveston, Texas. An estimated 6,000 people, but maybe twice as many as that reportedly died in the crush of wind and wave.

Larson’s book, “Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History” (Vintage Books, 336 pages, $13) is just out in paperback. The author will read from it and sign copies Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

The threat that someone else might have beaten him to print was only one of several problems that Larson, now the author of three books, has faced during his writing career.

A graduate of Columbia University’s journalism school, Larson traded a staff position at the Wall Street Journal that he loved for a San Francisco lifestyle that he ended up loathing.

In 1989, he, his wife and their two children - neither of whom slept well - were living in “a small, overpriced house.” Both his freelance career and his wife’s medical career had, he said, “tanked.”

That was the year, he added, of San Francisco’s most recent killer earthquake. And that, he says, “was the high point of the year, which should give you an idea of how things were going.”

The family ended up in Baltimore, and Larson pulled things together well enough to write his first book - “The Naked Consumer: How Our Public Lives Become Public Commodities” (Penguin, $10.95) - based on work he had done for the Journal.

That gave him enough confidence to tackle a touchier subject. “Lethal Passage: The Story of a Gun” (Vintage Books, $13) tells how a particular gun type was developed and how one model ultimately ended up in the hands of a murderous teen.

“My first book got almost zero notice and zero sales,” Larson said. “My second book got tremendous notice, great reviews and very small sales. And my third book clicked on both levels.”

It won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and was read by Dick Estell on National Public Radio. Not only did “Isaac’s Storm” sell well enough to pay for a move to Seattle for Larson and his family, but, he says, “I’ll be able to comfortably support myself while researching this next book.”

He’s not saying just what that book is.

The next Sebastian Junger might be listening.

Where’s Harry?

If you’re wondering why the New York Times best-seller list suddenly doesn’t include any of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books in its fiction category, you’re not alone.

Here’s the reason: Publisher’s complaints.

Rowling’s books have become so popular that they’ve crowded other books off the list. So the Times has come up with a new children’s list to go along with the fiction, nonfiction, “advice, how-to & miscellaneous” categories in both hardback and paper.

Times Book Review editor Charles McGrath says that publishers are happy more room is now available for adult books. But, he stressed, more change may be in the works.

“The time has come when we need to clear some room,” he told Times Web site reporter Dinitia Smith. “I don’t want to rule out the possibility we will adjust this. This is a work in progress.”

Book club

Hannah Hurnard’s novel “Hinds’ Feet on High Places” is the July selection of the Valley Hastings’ Inspirational Readers Book Group, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667).

The poetry corner

Barnes & Noble, east of the Spokane Valley Mall, is holding July’s Open Mike Poetry night at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Interested readers should register at 6:45 p.m. (922-4104).

The reader board

Torena O’Rorke, author of “Always Another Dawn,” will read at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Lincoln Heights Hastings (535-4029), and at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Valley Hastings.

Ridley Pearson, author of “Middle of Nowhere,” will read at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Erik Larson, author of “Isaac’s Storm,” will read at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Janet Campbell Hale, author of “Bloodlines,” and Mary Clearman Blew, author of “All But the Waltz,” will read at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Washington State University’s Todd Hall Auditorium. Their appearance is part of WSU’s Fifth Women’s West Conference (208/885-4340).

Charles Romalotti, author of “Salad Days,” will read at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.