Jules Verne was a veritable prophet. Before automobiles hit the road, he imagined electric submarines, journeys to the moon, global communication, television, and dozens of other zany advances. But his greatest creation has got to be Captain Nemo, a hero for both the 19th and 21st centuries. The courageous captain of the Nautilus, Nemo is an anti-imperialist who creates a sustainable underwater community, his blue and green paradise away from the gray industrial revolution (The Nautilus, it has been said, was a zero emission, VOC-free vehicle). Nemo is a vengeful self-exiling cynic, irrevocably heartbroken and purely ingenious. In other words, Literary Perfection. But best of all, he is his own master, removed from our messy, nefarious, landlubbing world. more ›

There's talk that Kindle sales have hit a wall recently, so we have a new slogan for Amazon: "RE: Kindle your love of reading." *crickets* Well, we have all sorts of buzz to report, too. First, there's the 8.5" x 11" textbook edition of Kindle. Then there's that $100-off-a-Kindle deal. Finally, there's the Kindle 2.0 rumor-mongering: "[T]he new version is significantly thinner, has a better screen, is more stylish and includes fixes to some of the user interface annoyances with the first version." Now how much would you pay? $249-$299? more ›