New Releases in Literary Fiction

Summer 2010 · I've been listening to author interviews and hearing about a lot of new novels recently, and am especially looking forward to these three: the first is a literary caper, the second a satire and the third a work of historical fiction. Happy reading...

The Theives of Manhattan by Adam Langer :: Review · Interview
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart :: Review · Interview
The Thousand Autumns by David Mitchell :: Review · Interview

Lit Drift's Free Book Fridays

LitDrift.com · The cool writing and storytelling blog, Litdrift.com, has a contest for free books every Friday, sponsored by Tachyon Publications. To my surprise, I actually won three new sci-fi anthologies in this recent drawing! Drop by Lit Drift for the latest.

The Return of Psychedelics Research

TTBOOK, 06.06.2010 · Timothy Leary probably did more than anyone to popularize LSD in the 1960's, but this indiscriminate promotion of mind-altering substances created a backlash, making scientific study almost impossible. Now a new generation of scientists is studying psychedelics' potential for treating problems and illuminating consciousness. This hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge explores the cutting edge of this new research.

TTBOOK's 'Psychedelics' Episode and Real Audio | (Click here for MP3)
Related New York Times Article: 'Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again'

The Future of Books and Publishing

Bob Edwards Weekend · This engaging series investigates how the publishing industry is changing in the digital age. In his conversations with writers, readers, publishers and media theorists, host Bob Edwards explores the increasingly dramatic effects of technology on the future of reading, writing, and selling books. Listen now:

The Future of Publishing Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Featured: Richard Nash, Future of the Book and Jason Epstein's Essay

'A Novel Approach' to Consciousness

CBC Radio, 02.11.2010 · How does what we read shape how we see ourselves and our world? Writers of fiction often explore why we think the way we do by attempting to convey some sense of the mind’s inner workings. In this provocative episode of CBC Radio's Ideas, Hassan Santur inquires about how literary novels, alongside neuroscience and psychology, inform our understanding of consciousness and perception.

Streaming Audio at CBC Radio's Ideas site | Ideas Podcast Listen and Download
Featured: David Lodge, Jeff Warren and Galen Strawson

The Holy Grail of the Unconscious

NY Times, 09.20.2009 · When Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration he called his "confrontation with the unconscious," the heart of it was The Red Book, a large, illustrated personal journal he created between 1914 and 1930. Here he developed the theories that transformed psychotherapy. Yet while Jung considered The Red Book to be his most important work, only a handful of people have ever seen it. Now, in a complete facsimile and translation, it is being published for the first time.

Read the New York Times Article | The Book at Amazon <<

Pynchon's New Novel Dark, Delicious

NPR, 07.29.2009 · "Inherent Vice" is the tendency of material to deteriorate because of its own essential instability. It's also the title of the latest novel by Thomas Pynchon. The book is a noir detective novel about the abduction of a millionaire developer and the stoned hippie private eye who goes in search of him. Reviewer Alan Cheuse calls the book a deliciously composed dark comedy.

Listen to the NPR Review | Find it at Amazon <<

Content: Selected Essays by Cory Doctorow

Craphound.com · In this collection of 28 essays, Sci-fi writer and net activist Cory Doctorow examines "everything from copyright and DRM to the layout of phone-keypads, the fallacy of the semantic web, the nature of futurism, the necessity of privacy in a digital world, the reason to love Wikipedia, the miracle of fanfic, and many other subjects." The essay Free(konomic) E-books, about how free ebooks help sales of print books, is especially recommended.

Download the entire book for FREE in many formats, including audiobook. <<