Best-selling writer Clive Cussler by the numbers

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Clive Cussler is back on the list with 'The Striker.' Check out his career by the numbers. (Photo: Photos By Leanna)

Clive Cussler has been writing for four decadesHis new novel, 'The Striker,' hits the best-seller listHe'll be publishing four novels this year

Thrill king Clive Cussler has been crafting best sellers for 40 years.Boiling with international intrigue, fiendish villains and action above and below the sea, his biggest hits include Raise the Titanic!, Valhalla Rising and the non-fiction The Sea Hunters. Cussler's most famous hero is Dirk Pitt, "a combination (of) James Bond and Jacques Cousteau," as one reviewer put it. This week, Cussler's The Striker (written with Justin Scott), about a young detective in 1902, enters USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list at No. 11. Cussler by the numbers:

1965: Year the Korean War vet started writing.

1973: Year debut novel The Mediterranean Caper, starring Dirk Pitt, saw print

81: Cussler's age

'The Striker' debuted on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list at No. 11.

55: Number of books he's written

4: Number of new novels to be published in 2013

608: Weeks spent on USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list since October 1993 launch

44: Number of titles to hit list

8/23/2001: Date Valhalla Rising made its debut as No. 1

34: Years since Cussler formed the non-profit National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA), dedicated to preserving maritime and naval history

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Book buzz: 'Fifty Shades' by the numbers

By Lindsay Deutsch, USA TODAY

Here's a look at what's buzzing in the books world today:

--The week's hot books: USA TODAY's Bob Minzesheimer gives details on the week's top five new and noteworthy releases, including Gold by Chris Cleave.

--'50 Shades,' 23 ways: If you stacked up all copies of Fifty Shades of Grey, the pile would be 51 miles high. Or you could fill 12 Olympic swimming pools with all of the copies sold. Publishers Weekly tackles the best-seller in 23 fun statistics.

--All-American books: Feeling patriotic this July 4th week? The Daily Beast gives Independence Day books suggestions for people of all different viewpoints.

--Barnes on books: The Sense of an Ending author Julian Barnes writes about his bibliomania and defends physical books and bookstores on The Guardian.

--The vest plot: Jennifer Weiner pokes fun at The Marriage Plot author Jeffrey Eugenides and his infamous Broadway billboard vest with an ad for her new book,The Next Best Thing.

--Poet memoir: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate Natasha Trethewey will write a memoir to be published by Ecco in 2014.

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Best-selling writer Malcolm Gladwell by the numbers

Happy holidays, Malcolm Gladwell fans. Little, Brown is releasing Malcolm Gladwell: Collected: The Definitive Editions, a boxed set of his game-changing best sellers The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers. To mark the occasion, a look at the author by the numbers.

By Brooke Williams

489: Total number of weeks Gladwell's four books, including What the Dog Saw, have spent on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

6: Top rank reached on list (Blink on Jan. 27, 2005).

$80: Price of the new boxed set.

48: Gladwell's age.

3: Countries Gladwell has lived in. He was born in England to a British mathematician and Jamaican psychotherapist. They later moved to Canada. Today Gladwell lives in New York City.

10,000: In Outliers: The number of hours needed to gain mastery of something. For example, the time The Beatles spent playing in Hamburg, Germany. Gladwell's 10,000 hours: a decade spent at The Washington Post.

1996: Year Gladwell joined The New Yorker.

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