I Could Never Sell

See if you can tell me the name of the author who has had the most NY Times bestsellers, according to Guinness World Records? If not, notice why not.  Whether or not you care for bestsellers, the NY Times, or Guinness World Records. Surely the NY Times could come up with that number without asking [...]

I went to to a book launch last week, where Seth Godin launched his new book Lynchpin. Oops. Linchpin. I keep spelling that wrong. A linchpin holds the wheel on the wagon, mile after mile. Lynch? Why does “lynch” come back again and again? Some of you have guessed already. Think this is the wrong [...]

If fear is everywhere, why don’t we see it? Because it frightens us.  We hide from it.  We hide it from ourselves. Where?  Along the spectrum of fear.  Fear, caution, and shenpa. Fear Look at dad doing homework with his 4th grade daughter, Alice.  Math.  She thinks she’s not good at math.  She’s in a [...]

Film-makers watch “rushes” at the end of each day as they translate script to film.   Then they disappear into the editing room for weeks.  Then they test market early cuts of the film, and go back to the editing room. I expect that one day soon we will see all four of those steps repeated [...]

New Years is the season for obituary and elegy.  This New Year, a decade of obituary and elegy. Books themselves are dying, we hear.  The world of books.  No one has time. Unless perhaps the right book-reader gadget comes forth to save books and reading and writing and the life of the mind, we hear. [...]

I just bought a tarp.  The snow season has come, and I want to cover the windshield.  I had a two-car garage for ten years.  Now snow season has come to my life, and I park my car on gravel in front of a door lettered “5B”.  I imagine my old friend is afraid in [...]

Books are dying, we hear. I think we’ve got this wrong. I for one won’t be joining the elegy for the world of books, or the vigil against their extinction, or the search for a cure among the new e-Reader gadgets. Among the obituaries for the year and decade this holiday, I see obituaries for [...]