The first I heard about it was from my friend Kate, who owns a bookstore. She said she was going to be open at midnight, just like with "Harry Potter". But it didn’t stick. I couldn’t remember what the book was about, never mind its name. Then, reading an article in "Newsweek" about a vampire […]

I wonder if today’s generation has it better, with their parents telling them they’re gifted, that they’re worldbeaters, that they deserve success. My upbringing was different. One day a girl with glasses came to play with my older sister. Maybe my father was feeling the solidarity, since he was a lifelong glasses wearer, long before […]

Once upon a time the musicians were the stars. And the goal of those of us who couldn’t play was to get as close to them as possible. In an era prior to Facebook and YouTube, where the lowliest punter has access to the inner workings of the government, never mind record companies, our desire […]

I purchased "The Gulag Archipelago" before I learned how to pronounce his name. But I never read it. At this late date, I believe "Anna Karenina" to be the best book ever written, but when I attempted "The Gulag Archipelago", I had not read Tolstoy’s work, I was a Russian literature newbie. And I failed. […]