Why We Love Books

There’s this wonderfully pithy headline from an insightful, award-winning ad that says, “You can take a book anywhere, & vice versa.” And just in case you belong to the cynical set who don’t believe what advertising tells them, here’s something on a more intellectual note: the immortal wisdom of Groucho Marx, which tells us “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

Anyone Know A Good Cellphone Story?

A friend of mine has recently written a novel set in the mid-1800s. Not a very exciting period to pitch your plot in, you’d think. But when you really go into the matter, you’ll see it’s a very smart move. That’s because ever since cellphones happened to humankind, it’s become impossible for a story set in contemporary times to have even a halfway-decent plot.