Bwahahahaha...no, seriously. (Justin Bieber's memoir hits bookstores today)

With the release of Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever today, one of my pet peeves comes urbling to the surface of the blogosphere. Without addressing the literary quality in young Bieber's book (I'm sure enough people will be trashing it without reading it, but that's an entirely separate pet peeve), what irks me is all the people saying, "Isn't he too young to write a memoir?"

Memoir and autobiography are two very different forms. An autobiography is the chronicle of a full life span, typically written in a person's later years; a memoir is a slice of an extraordinary life. A talented ghostwriter could do a memoir with a baby. (I'd actually love to try that!) The story could take place over a month, a day, an hour. Why not Memoir of a Minute? (Hmm. I'd love to try that, too.)

I wrote a memoir in my mid 30s. (Which reminds me: Buy my memoir!) I ghostwrite memoirs for people young and old. (Buy this one too. And this one!) Hilary Liftin wrote her first memoir, Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean with her Yale roommate and followed up with the delicious Candy and Me: A Girl's Tale of Life, Love, and Sugar before ghosting memoirs for Tori Spelling, Miley Cyrus, and Terri Hatcher. Then there's Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, written with Sally Jenkins. And hey, while I cringe to mention Lindbergh's Pulitzer winner in the same paragraph as Tori Spellling, The Spirit of St. Louis, anyone?

Memoirist/writing coach Virginia Lloyd, author of The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement: a True Story of Love and Renovation says this about that:

All memoirs are about personal journeys, which often involve change and transformation. They are quite different from autobiographies, which endeavour to remember everything noteworthy that happened, in chronological order, during the author’s lifetime. Memoirs are much more selective, focused on a particular period of time in a defined place, or a series of related experiences. The strongest memoirs arise from the fact that the writer undergoes some kind of change due to specific experiences, and he or she now has the necessary perspective, analytical distance, and emotional courage to write about them.

She wisely advises: "It should go without saying that if you are not already reading memoirs then you should not be attempting to write one." (Or you should hire a talented ghostwriter.)

Take a moment to read the rest of Virginia Lloyd's excellent Write Stuff article. There's some terrific procedural advice for anyone with a memoir on the brain or in progress.

By the way, Bieber's book features photographs by the brilliant Robert Caplin. Check out his "Love and Cartagena" piece for the New York Times.

And for those immune to Bieber fever, here's a quiet moment from before he was famous, just somebody's kid who is undeniably talented and a little harder to hate.

AbeBooks top 20 tales of shattered childhood (Now go call your mother!)

Just in time for Father's Day! If you need to be reminded that your childhood wasn't actually all that bad, AbeBooks offers the most depressing summer reading list ever:

"In many ways, our childhood defines the rest of our life. Books about childhoods shattered by pain and suffering – both fiction and non–fiction – are commonplace today but they have a long history dating back to the English tale of the Babes in the Wood in the 16th century. Some like Oliver Twist and Anne Frank's Diary illustrate a period of history, while others, such as Lord of the Flies and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, have become deeply symbolic."

The list includes everything from classic genre fiction like Flowers in the Attic to big bucks contemporary memoirs like A Long Way Gone and Running With Scissors, my personal favorite being Ham on Rye, Charles Bukowski's strangely wonderful roman a clef of ass-kickings and acne. Great book. Check it out.