BIG THOUGHTS

From the bestselling novelist and author of The Invention of Solitude, a moving and highly personal meditation on the body, time, and language itself. Learn More

Nicholson Baker, who "writes like no one else in America" (Newsweek), here assembles his best short pieces from the last fifteen years. Learn More

A student's introduction to the historical context, key themes and current debates in Utilitarianism. Learn More

The philosophical roots of Sartre’s anti-colonial stance. Learn More

War is a fact of human nature. As long as we exist, it exists. That's how the argument goes. Learn More

The Electric Information Age Book explores the nine-year window of mass-market publishing in the sixties and seventies when formerly backstage players designers, graphic artists, editors stepped into the spotlight to produce a series of exceptional books. Learn More

What’s a novelist supposed to do with contemporary culture? And what’s contemporary culture sup­posed to do with novelists? In The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem, tangling with what he calls the “white elephant” role of the writer as public intellectual, arrives at an astonishing range of answers. Learn More

It’s hard to imagine that “the cool” could ever go out of style. After all, cool is style. Isn’t it? And it may be harder to imagine a world where people no longer aspire to coolness. Learn More

One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels—works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Learn More