I'd blame no adult for taking one look at my suggestion to reread books you were assigned in high school and then in turn suggesting a flying leap. Our tendencies are to view The Great Gatsby or Silas Marner as mountains or mist, immovable, unquestionable deities or long-ago encounters too...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a semi-regular tra-la-la through the the world of books, authors and readings. Send tips, recommendations and backhanded compliments. to tst@booktour.com. Or follow us on twitter @book_tour.

Scary Smart Solnit:

Our friends at Bomb Magazine just gave us a sneaky peaky at...

Director John Hughes died on my 36th birthday, which means I'm now the age he was when Ferris Bueller took his day off. Hughes reportedly wrote Ferris based on the high school adventures of his best friend, himself, and his girlfriend, whom Hughes married shortly after their graduation in...

Welcome back to the Shelf Talker, a not-so-regular look at books, authors and reading. We've been gone for a little while and deserve your admonishments and downward glances. Can we kiss and make up? And offer you this new way of reading the bibliophilic crosswinds? Stick your head out the...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a regular rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. Send notices, idle gossip and vicious rumors to TST@booktour.com. Or digest at 140 characters on Twitter (@book_tour).

On the road:

• Book: Let the Great...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a regular rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. Send alerts, utterances and passed notes to TST@booktour.com. Or glance at 140 characters on Twitter (@book_tour).

On the road: (New format this week. Don't panic).

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Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a regular rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. Send notices, throat clearings and letter bombs to TST@booktour.com. Or ingest at 140 characters on Twitter (@book_tour).

On the road:

TST is happily spoken for but also not...

Welcome to The Shelf Talker, a regular rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on book tour.

Ben Greenman is an editor at the New Yorker with the same name as about 19 guys TST sat next to in hebrew school. However, none of them...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a weekly rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. Keep the dirtbombs flying at TST@booktour.com.

Housekeeping note: The Shelf Talker is now on Twitter! Follow our shenanigans in tolerable 140 character chunks by clicking

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a weekly rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on book tour. Send rumors, asides and dirt bombs to TST@booktour.com.

Forgive the interruption. Each spring, The Shelf Talker extends its wings and heads south for the annual jamboree of big...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a weekly rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour.

Keep tibits, gossip, and arrowheads coming to TST@booktour.com.

On the Road:

We here at TST love author Nelson George with an invigorating mixture of admiration, stewed jealousy and...

Welcome to The Shelf Talker, a weekly rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. We debuted last week on the Huffington Post amid loud thumps and furious whispers of impropriety.

Keep tibits, endorsements, scandal and nasty bits coming to TST@booktour.com.

On the...

Welcome to the Shelf Talker, a weekly rundown of news, gossip and recommendations from and about authors on tour. We'll focus on writers, readers, booksellers and the wondrous ridiculous things that happen when thrown in a room together. Send tibits, endorsements, scandal and dead fish to TST@booktour.com.

On...

"I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Then I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors
And now the whole world is here for me to see" -Jimi Hendrix.

Mr. Hendrix would have loved...

What do the recent Facebook privacy controversy, the start of the new fall tv season, and the relaunch of Mental Floss.com have in common? They're all indicators that the media term "filtering" is no longer enough. Once the practice of managing the endless flow of content and entertainment into...