Some people (like me!) are so busy reading books that they don't bother much with moving-image media such as films and TV. But what about watching YouTube videos relating to ... authors!

The following is an excerpt from "Route 66 Still Kicks" [Skyhorse Publishing, $16.95]: It was near here in the 1930s that a thirty-four-year-old wr...

With Labor Day approaching, a reader's thoughts might turn to an author with an immense sympathy for the working class. That author is John Steinbeck, and this post is an appreciation of his work.

Who are your favorite non-stereotypical literary characters?

The 1800s were of course a time of blatant racism, and many authors reflected that by depicting fictional characters of color in horribly stereotyped ways. Or they omitted those characters entirely, as if the world was populated by whites only.

Madeleine Crum, The Huffington Post: Though John Steinbeck is best known for chronicling the woes of The Great Depression, his raw, journalistic acco...

Scientists had experimented with the possibility of showing the world in color since even before the late 1800s, but it was the invention known as Kodachrome that delivered "the colors the human eye perceives" not just to obsessive eccentrics but to housewives, Boy Scouts and Rotarians.

Whether Barack Obama is re-elected or replaced is overwhelmingly hinged on jobs and the economy. There's more than this to being president.

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is an epic tragedy that leaves readers shocked and awed. But, along the way, there are some delightfully funny interludes -- most notably the pre-voyage scene in which Ishmael and Queequeg end up in the same bedroom.

As I write this on Thanksgiving weekend, I give thanks to the books that turn adolescent readers into adult readers. For me, it was one 19th-century novel by a woman, and one 20th-century novel by a man.

Reading a beloved book twice, thrice, or more is a craving that can't be denied. It's pleasurable, comforting, and relaxing -- partly because you don't have to figure out what the author is doing from scratch.

My list includes the authors' names, the number of novels I've read by each of them, and my three favorite novels (in rank order) by each of them. If you have different favorites by those authors, I'd like to hear about that.