Jonah Lehrer Publishing Scandal Touches Laguna Beach Books

Like many cool indie bookshops, our own frequently hosts author events, where writers will come in and talk about (and hopefully sell) what they’ve just published, maybe even sign some copies.

Sometimes, for bigger-named authors who would easily max out their Coast Highway shop to overflowing, the store will partner up with the and hold paid-ticket events there.

This was supposed to happen next on August 27, with an appearance at Aliso Creek by Jonah Lehrer, who had been crashing bestseller lists for several months with his nonfiction tome Imagine: How Creativity Works.

Irony, sweet irony: Last week, it was revealed that Lehrer’s creative imagination involved making up quotes for the book—specifically, quotes he attributed to Bob Dylan which Dylan never said.

Holy James Frey!

You can read more about the Lehrer scandal by clicking up this New York Times piece. But we’ll skip to the dénouement: Lehrer wound up losing his gig as a New Yorker writer, and his publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, responded to the controversy by recalling all copies of Imagine, deleting the e-book from Amazon and other online sites, and cancelling all of Lehrer’s public appearances touting the book.

Like the one at Aliso Creek Inn.

“We were really looking forward to hosting it,” Laguna Beach Books marketing and events coordinator Danielle Bauter tells Patch. “But they’re recalling all the books, so we have to send back our copies. The publisher seemed just as blindsided by it as we’ve been.”

Bauter says Laguna Beach Books pre-sold about 30 tickets for the Lehrer event, which will be refunded. The store had also planned to donate part of the revenue to the , but Bauter says a donation will still be made despite the cancellation.

The store's next event will instead be an August 30 appearance by Sonia Marsh, author of the memoir Freeways to Flip-Flops. It's expected to be much less controversial ...