Franzen's glasses create a spectacle

Book 'em? Author Jonathan Franzen decided instead to give a thief freedom.

The novelist declined to press charges after his glasses were swiped at a launch party for the British edition of his acclaimed new novel, "Freedom." The story first appeared on The Bookseller magazine's website.

The thieves crashed the party at London's Serpentine Club, claiming to work for a publisher; one grabbed Franzen's spectacles, and the other gave him a note demanding $100,000 for their return.

The thieves legged it, but one suspect was detained briefly by police, who returned the glasses. Franzen, in an interview the next day on NPR, described them as "heavy, brown, horn-rimmish sort of things."

The British edition of "Freedom" was hastily reprinted last weekend after the publisher, HarperCollins' 4th Estate imprint, discovered the first 50,000 copies were an uncorrected draft that contained a number of typesetting errors.