Curiosity is what drives Susan Orlean , author of books on the trade in orchids (“The Orchid Thief”), the first canine movie star (“Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend”) and the nocturnal portion of the week’s sixth day (“Saturday Night”).

“I am genuinely curious. I find a lot of ordinary things really interesting,” Orlean said during a talk last Tuesday at the Los Angeles Central Library . She was promoting her memoir, “Joyride.”

Assigned to write about Macaulay Culkin as an example of a typical 10-year-old, Orlean talked her editor out of it and instead found a typical 10-year-old, whom she profiled in depth.

“What do they think about? What do they talk about?” Orlean recalled wondering. “It was extraordinarily interesting to describe what a 10-year-old boy was like.”

Her 1992

See Full Page