The sensual intellectual

See an entire book of Erotic Photography or do it yourself

BABY BOOMERS - BOOK LIGHT - BRIGHT OUTPUT

Frustrated with those book lights that make you squint until you throw it (and the book you're trying to read) agains the wall in the middle of the night. This one by Mighty Bright comes with double and triple the average book light output.

HOTEL GUTENBERG

Looking for a hotel in Strasbourg? Try

The Hotel Gutenberg.

WHAT A WRITER NEEDS

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it. Ernest Hemingway

WORD FOR SURGE IN FRENCH? Maybe you should know

How do you say 'surge' in French? Or any other word in French. How about learning that foreign language you studied for two years in college and don't remember a damn thing about. It's not too late. Hey, my grandfather learned fluent Italian when he was 80. So what's stopping you? I know. Everyone speaks English. You don't have time. Well, on your next trip to Whole Foods, I bet you won't be hesitant to buy Spanish olive oil, French mineral water, or dozens of other products. Admit it. You won't try speaking another language because it's hard. Remember those studies in aging. Use it or lose it. In other words, maybe you should get off your butt.

ALICE MCDERMOTT

Real writing for real women. Charming Billy by Alice McDermott. Does not have warning label "May cause drowsiness" as do the books by, among others, Toni Morrison, Anne Tyler, and Sandra Cisneros. "Eloquent...heartbreaking...McDermott is brilliant." —The New York Times Book Review "An astoundingly beautiful novel about the persistence of love, the perseverance of grief, and all-but-unbearable loneliness, as well as faith, loyalty and redemption." —The Philadelphia Inquirer "In Charming Billy, Ms. McDermott writes...with wisdom and grace, refusing to sentimentalize her characters even as she forces us to recognize their decency and goodness. She has written a luminous and affecting novel." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

BEST AUDIOBOOKS

I proclaim myself an audiobook expert owing to my experience as an actor, playwright, English teacher, second language learner fiction writer, student of Shakespearean prosody, speech writer and public speaker, plus I grew up in a family where poetry was recited in seven different languages and my grandfather's idea of fun was to sit down with me and explain Russian prosody. Since it's hard to pre-screen audiobooks (in any and all of their various media), this magazine might help you out.

MIDDLE BROW TRIUMPH

Post-modernist gobblygookers beware! Yalies, Duke, NYU, UC Berkley-boasting social text credentials with narcissistic egocentric tendencies, used to letting loose at 6 bucks a drink MLA conventions letting the rest eat cake while lauding Kristeva, Gramsci, Baudrillard, et alia--admit that you love your mothers and that middle brow culture still rules after 25 years and thank god the subaltern classes don't live in your neighborhood and now that you have tenure and lament that Last Year at Marienbad never made the AFI top 100 film list and breathe a sigh of relief that you got in under the wire before undergraduates realized cultural studies would put them on the soup line unless they got your job, now is the time to repent. Sneak a read at this book and let those tears come even if it's under your blanket at 3 a.m. Remember those times in summer camp? And since you're getting too old to really get up the intellectual drive to deal with post-industrial, post-McLuhan, post postal mail issues because the younger generation has you beat, take solace your post-angst angst can find an outlet. Now's the time for your tears.

READING & BACK OPERATION

Have you discovered that hours and hours of reading can ruin the health of your spine: herniated disks, osteoarthritis, stenosis, lumbar pain, slipped disks, bad posture??? If you write, you might already have carpal tunnel. Is it worth it? Yoga, meditation, diet...and WHILE you're reading, consider these....

LOOK COOL AT STARBUCKS

Are you the guy/girl writing the great American screenplay, novel, post-modern analysis of the millenium generation while sitting at Starbucks. Have people admire you even more than they do now with this super book bag, laptop carrier with this Samsonite Carry Bag (it's not just for traveling anymore). Sorry, no place to fit a coffee cup.

WRITE A NOVEL

Even Newt Gingrich wrote one. So can you.