MOST RECENT BLOG POSTS
'Erotic' religion. Your favorite kind. Academic statement of the year: "Philosophy is erotic, not just epistemic," says Simon Critchley, author of The Book of Dead Philosophers....
Best Advice Ever If only Alice Hoffman had given a thought to "Send" before she sent her furious tweets out to the world....
The Perfect Author for Hard Times Is everyone reading Dickens these days?...
'I' Before 'E,' Except in Britain The U.K. shuns a mnemonic device that's helped generations....
Fifteen books in fifteen minutes The latest meme: fifteen books that will always stick with me....
Help Wanted ... I need an intern ... a flexible musico-marketer-acrobat...
The new world OGIC discovers W. Jackson Bate's great Samuel Johnson biography....
What Is It About Nancy Drew, Anyway? Mentioning the girl detective in a crowd of bookish women is a catalyst for rhapsody....
This Has Nothing To Do With Sonia Sotomayor On empathy, reading, and living in the real world....
Dave Dudley, Colm Tóibín, and little white pills Seeing oneself with open eyes in Tóibín's marvelous Brooklyn....
Reasons to be cheerful, Pt. 7 My first broadcast TV interview. And it's about a classic essay collection on paths to ordinary pleasure. LIke reading and writing and, oh, just walking....
Looking at Michael Blumenthal's And "And" -- a simple word that befits "the nomenclature of grief and desire."...
That's all he wrote A biographer finally reaches the end of a long road....
Speaking (not just) for yourself The untenable loss of poetry's universal subject....
Lynda Barry Is Tougher Than Me On plucking an old book off the shelf and being surprised by what's inside....
SONG IS YOU: the musical obsession as novel from Arthur Phillips, NPR's ON POINT this morning...
Withdrawn ... compositions may be withdrawn ... recordings get "deleted"...
Poetry For Our Time A Look at Jackson Prize-Winner Linda Gregg...
Snapshot This week's video: M.F.K. Fisher talks about her life....
Countdown The terrifying moment when a book first becomes itself to the anxious author....
Onlie begetters How not to dedicate a book....
Adam Zagajewski's truth I was reading his new book and was reminded of Spinoza. It's sounds like I'm kidding but...
Use Me! Use Me! Use Me! A newspaper that doesn't want to lock you out. Instead, it gives you the keys to the front door...
Book Bling for Sale All the Hemingways I saw were going for stratospheric prices. Well, not exactly going. More like asking....