I Just Read A Pair Of Manolo Blahniks

"You can hardly tell" whether a party might be "the new opening of a Gucci store or the launch of a book of essays," said Fran Lebowitz, the veteran partygoer and writer. "There's an effort to muddle that line to convince people, 'It's not a book of essays but it's a pair of shoes!' because people prefer shoes."

- From an entertaining essay in the New York Times, on book launches now and then.