A Slow-Books Manifesto “To borrow a cadence from Michael Pollan: Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics.”

“The refuge of stories.” Steve Almond on grad school as an alternative to therapy.

Please please Mr. Postman So much of life allows us (expects us, requires us) to be passive. The letter, though, invites a response, preferably thoughtful. It’s invigorating. Matthew Specktor on sending and receiving letters, “beautifully useless” though they may be.

Bigger than “lessons in bad reading comprehension” Race and the Hunger Games.

Imaginations: go! Spacing is calling for entries in their Creative Mapping contest.

*Relieved sigh* The libraries are open again, just in time for the Keep Toronto Reading Festival, a month long celebration of books and the like. The One Book portion of the festivities opens tonight with a conversation with Girls Fall Down author Maggie Helwig (7 pm at the Toronto Reference Library). Stay tuned for TRB dispatches from the front line.

Even more literary fun April is also National Poetry Month. The launch is tonight, from 5-6 pm at the League of Canadian Poets office (192 Spadina Ave, Suite 312).