Several months ago, I got an email out of the blue, from a book reviewer and columnist for Psychology Today. She wondered if I'd be interested in doing an interview on The Collector of Burned Books that would focus on the importance of exercising our freedom to read...

You know the people. The ones you've learned not to lend books to because they always forget to return them. The ones who will swear they didn't have them or that they gave them back, even though you know that precious volume is right there on their shelves. Or...

In my research for The Collector of Banned Books, I came across a fascinating story that ended up both informing and then getting largely cut from the manuscript due to space issues. My paraphrase-from-memory of the story is as follows: There was a university...

So here's the nutshell. Obey literally means "listen to." Makes sense, right? Because to obey someone is, well, to listen to what they tell you to do. As in, to do it. Simple. Except, just looking at the word, you probably don't actually see the root words in there,...