The Eclectic Nightstand

Old School, Tobias Wolff - Amazon, B&N - This tale of literary formation at a preppy boys school might only appeal to a narrow demographic. It's the story of an outsider, a Jewish boy amid northeastern WASPs in the 1960s who takes an unfortunate shortcut to scholastic eminence. But the story ends on a note of deep and honest affection for this antiquated and patriarchal system of education. If you can name-check John Galt and Nick Adams in casual conversation, you might appreciate this one.

Lewis Carroll: A Biography, Morton N. Cohen - Amazon, B&N - Three hurrahs for unfathomably repressive Victorian sensibilities! Because if Lewis Carroll was born today he'd very likely end up on one of those 'perverted justice' MSNBC specials. Instead the renowned children's author, scholar, and trailblazing photographer led a harmless and melancholy existence. The biography brings England in the 19th century to life with Carroll at the center. But you may end up thinking that Alice and Wonderland belong on the same cultural shelf as Michael Jackson's 'PYT' and Neverland.

American Gods, Neil Gaiman - Amazon, B&N - Genre fiction without a genre, Gaiman's Nuevo-gothic novel is rewarding if you paid attention to mythology, and even better if you've had a few helpings of cross-cultural Joe Campbell somewhere in your literary background. The narrative twists and turns towards a satisfying conclusion, but the payoff is lessened by Gaiman's failure to fully connect the reader with the more human characters in the story.

Inescapable Data, Stakutis and Webster - Amazon, B&N - Reading this right now. All of the technology in this book by two researchers from IBM is familiar. And if you've been following along you know that our society - individuals, corporations, government - is increasingly exploiting bandwidth, disk space, data, and metadata with almost every commercial and private transaction. But the authors synthesize the implications of this convergence in ways that are insightful and original. This book reads like an exclusive, early-look analysis - the type of thing for which industry leaders pay a premium to the brightest minds.