Scott Berkun, an author and former Microsoft manager, recently posted a useful blog entry: How to write a book - the short honest truth. As someone who is ostensibly writing a novel, I'm interested to hear the voice of experience on this topic. The answer is refreshing: do the work. Berkun breaks down the question into the subtext of what people really want to know: how to get published, and how to make money writing. Here's a sample: If you want to write, kill the magic: a book is just a... READ ON

Artist Nina Katchadourian creates narratives by arranging books on shelves. The results are amusing and improbable, and had me standing in front of my "to-read" shelf trying to make my own version. Here's an example... READ ON

So the weekend is here, Paris is back in jail, and Mercury is about to turn retrograde. It pains me to see pictures of anyone crying, so I'm thinking about mailing Paris a bunch of backordered Don Divas, Darkness at Noon, some Nikki Giovanni, and some Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. I hope Paris does feel inspired to find creative ways to act out while at the unfortunately named Twin Towers Correctional Facility. And since one in every 32 adults was in a prison, jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005,... READ ON

If your coworkers came to work this morning clutching towels, sure, they could just be really excited about the long weekend. But since it's May 25th, it's more likely they're banding with other Douglas Adams fans to commemorate Towel Day. I came to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy via its MS-DOS Apple IIe game version--'90 was a long, dry summer, and I needed to engage in fantasies in which the phenomenal world no longer existed. So: towels. For those of us who are sans towel today, here's... READ ON