It’s the biggest unspoken secret amongst Comics fans: Comics are not for normal people. Comics fans are not normal, after all. Regardless of what they say about the special power of the form for communication the preferred content of the majority remains quite particular — Angry muscular dudes punching each other. Hey, don’t get me…

Reading Moby Dick out loud to my son — at his request with “no scary parts, dad” — I’m amazed at the difference in rhythm between contemporary fiction of this century and the last two. I know Melville’s a special case, all manic skipping lines, excitement, exasperation, then thunk, dead stop, horror. I know. But…

I’m a worst offender when it comes to “waiting till I’m ready” for this classic or that classic. In fact, I’ve been psyching myself up for Jame Joyce for over ten years! So in the spirit of “don’t be like me” I thought I’d share five of my favorite intimidating classics that don’t deserve their…

For the past two weeks I’ve been living like a bachelor, working in the city during the weekdays while my wife and son spent some time away at the cabin. As mentioned previously, I should not be left alone with myself. On my own, all proper thoughts of nutrition and culinary propriety leave my head…

I think it’s fairly obvious you’re reading too many books. They pile up on your shelves without rhyme or reason, they’re all over your house, and anything else with words in it, magazines, manuals, postcards, they’re gathering dust in the corner. I think it’s a mixture of option paralysis and shame. Good old shame. Anyway,…