The will to learn brings confidence, and the ability to view society through truthful eyes The socialist paradise in which I'm now sitting is a place where people from all walks of life, young and old, firm and somewhat less firm, have – through a combination of apprenticeship and self-examination – come to learn together about the world, without having to pay for the privilege. I...

It's called The Clever Room and it's one of the rooms in Berlin's recently opened boutique hotel, The Michelberger. They describe it this way: "Boost your IQ in Till & Werner's private library. A big screen TV, an extra-large double bed, bathtub by the window, and loads to read" Imagine being a book designer and staying here. Paradise or Purgatory? And there's more...

Dad, if you’re reading this, don’t go any further. Trust me. You don’t want to know. As promised, this is my post in support of the Great Flow Giveaway I’m running with Elissa Stein.  I have been thrilled and overwhelmed by the insights and stories so many of you have shared, and I just

(View entire post here) When I began to research and interview the later-life achievers featured in my new book, I tried to maintain a warm but objective distance. It wasn't always easy. They were very engaging. They introduced me to friends and family and opened their lives to me. They shared their goals, struggles, and victories along with their intimate secrets, their most painful memories....

Only one person was on the esplanade, a schoolgirl in uniform. She stood some twenty feet from him, in full view of his barge, sheltering from the rain beneath the archway that separates the Cannaregio canal from the Ghetto. She lighted a cigarette, and he watched with desire as wisps of smoke drifted out toward the canal and mingled with the mist. Perhaps he would ask her for a cigarette. Foreign...

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Fools Paradise by Jennifer Stevenson.Her entry begins:Fools Paradise is my favorite book about my favorite men—stagehands, those blue-collar knights of chivalry, those workaholic, playaholic, unsung heroes behind the curtain.This book more than any other came about through a collage. I knew it would begin with a Porsche Targa full of live smelt. I knew the hero

This is a tiny book that doubles both as a children's fable and an allegory for adults. It may be a fast read, but it has enormous resonances. The narrative is based in a mysterious town without animals or birds. Legend tells that they have been spirited away by the Pied Piper figure of Nehi, the mountain demon. The animals live in a paradise where no beast devours another and harmony reigns.

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he's discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They've already killed his sister, so he's not surprised when he disc...

Really pleased with the start to the year. Hit the ground running although a scatter gun approach means all sorts of things have been read without much direction. One of the highlights was reading another great JG Ballard in Rushing to paradise with all of the hallmarks of his work with strange obsessive end of worlders and the innocents dragged up and excited to be in their world. it also include...

A graphic novel about the political and social situation in Iran is beginning as a serialized web comic in seven languages. Zahra's Paradise, the first installment of which was published online on February 19, will ultimately see publication by First Second Books in 2011.