The Sacred Word

Rabbi David Wolpe, 10.07.2009

Words are wonders, magical, tossing thoughts from one mind to another. Alongside the wonder of words are the conveyances they ride -- pages, books, and now, screens?

The Slow Revolution is Growing... Fast

Carl Honore, 10.06.2009

Author, In Praise of Slowness

Being Arianna's first pick is a tremendous honor. It also serves up a delicious irony. My book is called In Praise of Slowness. Yet HuffPost is a pioneer on the fastest communication platform ever devised. Not exactly a natural fit.

Postcards from the Fun-Employed

Paula Froelich, 10.07.2009

Reporter for Page Six of The New York Post, Writer

I always dreamed of being a full-time novelist -- hell, who didn't? I mean, heck, you get to work from home, wear sweat pants, not have to blow out your frizzy hair or shave your legs.

Why New Books Don't Sell on the Kindle: The Price of the Intangible

Chip O'Brien, 10.07.2009

Director of Customer Relations for BookSwim.com, Editor of Thorn Magazine

The cost of an e-book has become such a point of contention because it makes distinct something we haven't had to distinguish until now: the price of content, independent from its medium.

Why We Need $4.00 Books

Mark Coker, 10.07.2009

Founder, Smashwords

The day has come for publishers to offer a $4.00 book. Most books are too expensive. Compared to lower cost alternative media sources, books are becoming niche consumables like caviar.

Why You Should Write in Your Books Now

Steve Leveen, 10.07.2009

CEO and co-founder of Levenger, Writer

If you have children or other loved ones who will someday inherit your books, you should write in them now. You need to know this: your handwriting inside your books may be their passport to preservation.

Why Books Are Still Central to Our Political Culture

Howard Dean and Elizabeth Wagley, 10.06.2009

Despite ongoing changes in technology, communications, and culture, books are consistently at the leading edge of new ideas, new social and political movements and new policy directions.

Obama Is "Incompetent" and the U.S. Is a "Madhouse": An Exclusive Interview With Gore Vidal

Johann Hari, 10.06.2009

Columnist, London Independent

Vidal holidayed with the Kennedys, cruised for men with Tennessee Williams, was urged to run for Congress by Eleanor Roosevelt, and co-wrote some of the most iconic Hollywood films.

Sam Tanenhaus, The Death of Conservatism (Review)

Joseph A. Palermo, 10.05.2009

Author/Associate Professor of History

Although a masterful writer, Tanenhaus gives his readers disembodied voices plucked from historical context, where the nexus of thought and action, theory and praxis, is either broken or simply ignored.

Who Needs the Olympics? Consolation Reading for Chicago Lovers

Adam Hanft, 10.06.2009

Political Columnist, CEO of Hanft Unlimited

Chicago is an Olympian city when it comes to literature and the arts. And what better time than now to remind us? Here's a sampling of some of those triumphs of the sedentary.

Political Celebrity and Publishing Tastes

David Colbert, 10.06.2009

Author, former editor and agent

Angry books sell on emotion. That's why they'll always sell better than cooler, thoughtful books. It's also why they're soon forgotten.

How Do You Make a Writer Kvetch?

Michael Wex, 10.06.2009

Author and Jewish Week Columnist

I don't complain because I'm unhappy. Writers in general don't seem to complain any more than musicians or painters or any other group of free-lance workers, they just tend to do it better.