''I just came across a nonfiction book he published in 1983 called Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. I don't hear many people talk about reading Walker Percy these days, which I think is a pity. He was not afraid to be an amateur philosopher and linguist and semiotician as well as a professional novelist. . . . It's structured as a series of multiple choice questions and thought experiments with two of my favorite being: ``Why is Carl Sagan so lonely?'' and ``Why was there no such word [as boredom] before the 18th century?''

-- CERIDWEN DOVEY

author of Blood Kin

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