Chris Bachelder’s ebook Lessons in Virtual Tour Photography was McSweeney’s first ebook with 45,000 downloads by 2004. He’s best known his scrapbook style novels, Bear v. Shark (2001) and U.S.! (2006). …more

A couple of the more exciting book stumbles I’ve enjoyed recently are Geologist Dougal Dixon’s “zoology of the future,” After Man (1981), and its “anthropology of the future” sequel, Man After Man (1990).

After Man is a credible paleontology/speculative fiction bonanza that runs on the sober premise that our era is over. The end wasn’t dramatic or sudden or particularly sad, it was just the culmination of humanity’s long-brewing bad habits. We blew it and died and took a lot of animals with us. …more

When I read a few dozen I Remembers in Joe Brainard’s I Remember, my brain starts mining itself without me telling it to. The canonical memories come first, but these set my brain on course to dustier ones it usually has no occasion to recall.

Most memories are not useful for survival, so when not forgotten completely, they’re stuffed in rooms that don’t see much light. It’s nice, stumbling on them. Embarrassing and unnerving too, depending on the memory, the way shame can stick. But I didn’t tell my brain to go looking, Brainard did. …more