Reading classic books can teach you as much about the present as the past.

“As a reporter, you can look into the eyes of the people you're talking to and try to evaluate what they're thinking when they say what they say. But you are not really gonna get into their brain. There's only one artistic form that allows you to do that. “

In this excerpt from "America's Most Gothic," Leanna Hieber and Andrea Janes examine the history and folklore of Maine's vanished schooner.

What happens when scientists "write what they know"? Some amazing science fiction stories.

"Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a truly foreign language."

Will "Sausage Party" survive the test of time?

Does Platonic love actually exist?

With the right prompts, large language models can produce quality writing — and make us question the limits of human creativity.

Have you ever noticed how many things you interact with but can’t name? So did we.

“I was incarcerated well before I was in prison and I was free before the gates of prison opened up and let me out.”

Like many of us, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius hated waking up early, but his stoic philosophy always helped him get out of bed.

How to say, "In many ways, Proust is similar to Joyce" and get away with it.

Today, the F-word is enjoying a renaissance the likes of which it hasn’t seen since, well, the Renaissance.

He is only out-sold by William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.

The world’s “most produced living playwright” wins out over other contestants, including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.

Six authors, six monumental legacies, and a unique thread connecting them: a solitary novel that shines brightly.

Meet the masterful con-men who impressed the great and the good despite the astonishing fiction of their very existence.

Probability, lacking solid theoretical foundations and burdened with paradoxes, was jokingly called the “theory of misfortune.”

When done right, dark humor can help us face inconvenient truths and question stifling social conventions.

You become the main protagonist in these novels.

Even the French got upset.

The Foo Fighters are at the dead center of the map, so all the other bands are happier, sadder, angrier, or hornier.

A new book by historian and author Paul Strathern argues that the Northern European Renaissance has long been overlooked.

From forgotten Hollywood movies to Frank Herbert’s "Dune," science fiction illustrates some of our deepest fears about technology.

Not every classic enjoyed rave reviews from the start.

Try writing a novel without using the letter "e."

Astronomer Michelle Thaller explains the healing power of physics after losing her husband.

Is the dumpster in the alley worthy of a poem?

Reading between the lines of Dorothy’s adventure to the Emerald City.

Happy reading!