Everybody needs advice sometimes. Whether everybody wants it is another matter, but there’s a reason so many people love Cary Tennis, Dan Savage, and Dear Prudence (although I do NOT like the videos, Prudence—such a lack of intimacy). In my day, kids, we had the choice of Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and god forbid [...]

Charles Simic has one of his gently bookish rants up at the NYRBlog, on a subject that’s always near and dear to my heart: the uncertain future of browsing. The gradual shuttering of used bookstores all over the country, says Simic, will surely curtail those moments of finding books that were never on our radar [...]

I came to poetry early, thanks mainly to my parents’ throwing a few good anthologies my way as soon as I could read. I loved it all, the rhyming stuff especially, and the more fanciful the better—Coleridge and Blake being particular favorites—and also the stuff you’d expect a kid to like: John Ciardi, Edward Lear, [...]

Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites Kate Christensen Doubleday, 2013 Disclaimer: I owe Kate Christensen cookies. About nine years ago, she did a guest author stint over at Readerville.com after a group read of her wonderful The Epicure’s Lament. It was the kind of book that invited rambling, and made for a convivial [...]

It seems to me writing letters is a lot like running: great while you’re doing it, great having done it, and the rewards are many, but making it part of your routine is the stumbling block. I always have the best of intentions, and own things like stationery and note cards and pretty stamps and [...]