Yesterday, without much fanfare, I posted the first of a new series I’m writing called “Shelf-Life.” Each episode in the series is centered around a book on my bookshelf. The inaugural episode centers around Race Against Time by Piers Anthony. I was happy with how it turned out. If this is your cup of tea, check it out.

Yesterday, I read what is perhaps the best piece of writing I’ve come across on blogging: why we do it and what it means to us. I urge you all to check out Robert Breen’s essay on “Why Blogs Matter.” His piece is so aligned with my own views that I wish I wrote it myself. It is one of those rare pieces of writing that reminded me why I write, and why I should be writing more than I have been. 

And speaking of writing, for those of you who want to see inside the life of a writer, to see in detail how the sausage is made, so to speak, there is a new episode of the Tim Ferriss Show out: a 3-hour long interview with Brandon Sanderson, which is outstanding. Probably the best episode I’ve come across so far.

Not long ago, I wrote about magazines that have been around for at least a century. This week, the 100^th anniversary issue of The New Yorker arrived in my mailbox. It is a thick edition, 160 pages, and three covers, including the original cover of the first issue of the magazine from 1925. Holding it, and flipping through its pages, I can feel the weight of a century of literary history. I normally don’t even notice the ads in the magazine, but in this issue, so many congratulate The New Yorker on a century of that they are impossible to miss.

I’ve made a good start in my quest to get through all of Tolkien. In addition to The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkienand J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (edited and written respectively by Humphrey Carpenter), I’ve now also read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, finally making it through the entire thing for the first time. I’m taking a break from Tolkien now to get through some other books. Yesterday I finished reading Bill Gates’s memoir, Source Code. Among the other books I’ve got lined up are: Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy (for book club), The Best American Sports Writing of the Century edited by David Halberstam (for the sheer joy of reading sports pieces); A Town Without Time by Gay Talese; Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo; The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt; and The Glory and the Dream by William Manchester. Oh yeah, and 3-volumes of Daniel J. Boorstin on the horizon as well.

Now, head over to Robert Breen’s blog and read about Why Blogs Matter. You won’t be sorry.