PRINT ON DEMAND (POD) AND THE PECKING ORDER Wherever humans gather a pecking order will emerge. A few of us may be lucky enough to stand at the top of that order but most of us will land somewhere in the middle or at the bottom. This phenomenon is important to remember as we struggle

DON’T SEND IN THE CLONES, PLEASE Frankly, I’m tired of reading book reviews that compare yet another thriller to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code.”  The truth is, there is only one Dan Brown and thank heaven for that because while his work is gripping it is also relentles

PAPER, PAPER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A STOP TO THINK Benjamin Braddock from the book and film “The Graduate” is an anti-hero who faces no ruthless enemy. His nemesis is summed up by the single word, “plastics” — a word which denotes not evil but a life lived at its mo

JOINING THE BORG Sara Paretsky, best-selling crime novelist whose fictional private investigator V.I Warshawski has made it to the movie screen, recently gave an interview to AARP Magazine (March/ April 2011). In it she said, “I’m on Facebook and Twitter because my publishers insi

WHAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR I wrote a blog earlier about the author Haruki Murakami and his novel “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” which impressed me as being unique among the books (Blog: 1/28/2011). As its tale continued to haunt me, I went to the used bookstore the other day

SERIOUS THOUGHTS OF LIFE AND DEATH Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese novelist who has received a good deal of recognition in this country and at least two of his works have become films: “The Remains of the Day” and “Never Let Me Go.” I have read none of his writing

March 10, 2011 “THE DEEPER THAT SORROW CARVES INTO YOUR BEING THE MORE JOY CAN BE CONTAINED” – Kahlil Gibran A friend paid me an oblique compliment the other day. We were talking about my blog of March 8 and the rude publisher I’d encountered. “Well one thing about y

THOUGHTS ON IMMUTABLE PRINCIPLES Though Nature everywhere exhorts us to think of change and diversity as requirements for survival, we humans cling to the familiar when it comes to values. Edicts adopted centuries past continue to dominate our thinking. In the fields of medicine and t

WAR OF THE WORDS… I’ve been considering whether or not to publish parts of my blog as a memoir. Just as Anne Morrow Lindbergh drew connections between the rhythms of beach life with her own, so I have been drawing parallels between my day to day observations and themes from litera

THE WHITE NOISE OF COFFEE HOUSES Last Saturday, I met a friend at a small coffee house in my neighborhood. About 30 customers had filled the place and most of them were so fixed upon their lap tops that few, if any, looked up when we entered. After ordering our beverages, my friend an