Features & Reviews

“You’re a different person when you’re at work, at home, out with your friends. Over the course of your life, your sense of self and where you belong in the world changes. In my case, it was fairly radical. I…

Let’s admit it – we judge books by their covers.  The old adage that we shouldn’t may invariably prove correct, but that doesn’t stop us from doing it anyway.  As with any commodity, those last five crucial inches of space…

“Following David Markson, I write in the library where my recall is perfect and my thoughts organized. The library is the best quiet place to work through third drafts. “Like Charles Bukowski, Dylan Thomas, and Dorothy Parker, I’ve written in…

“The thing to remember is that, since 1957, surfing as something you buy has overshadowed surfing as something you do.” An exclusive excerpt on the origins of surfing from the best of the Believer essays, Read Hard.

Of the many professors of literature I had at Santa Cruz, none captured my imagination or gained my admiration so much as the Classics professors did. Not that I was a Classics major by any stretch but I did happen…

“The objection was reviewed by a panel, in keeping with the library’s policy. It determined the book no longer belonged on the open stacks, but rather should be tucked away in the Hunt Collection, which are kept in a vault-like…

It’s natural to want more, to grow, to change, to grow up. But it’s easy to forget why we do what we do.

Follow the curve, as it goes down… down… down… Such is the tone of Benjamin Anastas’ An Underachiever’s Diary, just recently reissued as a Dial Press Trade Paperback and concurrently billed as the “the funniest, most underappreciated book of the…

“If you could read just one novel, what would it be?” That was the most recent query posed over at The Millions’ ongoing column Ask a Book Question. Many Millions contributors responded, recommending Slaughterhouse-Five, The Great Gatsby, and The Corrections…