Gift idea

Personal Days is one of Book Nerd's favorite books of 2008!

Calling Tal Champers!

The most fun, though, are the cameos, from an violent Mickey Spillane to the wryly comic young writers Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block, who serve as a sort of pulp Bert and Ernie--or, more accurately, Ernie and Ernie.
—I've Been Reading Lately

Art world confidential

Claire Barliant—PD reader.

No Christmas party?

"Office culture has sucked more than usual these days...": Gawker mentions Personal Days.

Reach the beach

New from City of Work:

Theodore Roethke's "Dolor"

I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils,
Neat in their boxes, dolor of pad and paper weight...

Read the whole poem here, and learn more about Rylan Steele, who took this photograph:

Photo: Office, 2008 by HHS entrant Rylan Steele

Hold that thought

"You Secure In Your Job?"

Check out three Quicktime poems by William Poundstone.