National Network for Equitable Library Service

35 concerts. 17,000 motorcycle miles. Three months. One lifetime. Now in paperback

In May 2015, the veteran Canadian rock trio Rush embarked on their 40th anniversary tour, R40. For the band and their fans, R40 was a celebration and, perhaps, a farewell. But for Neil Peart, each tour is more than just a string of concerts, it’s an opportunity to explore backroads near and far on his BMW motorcycle. So if this was to be the last tour and the last great adventure, he decided it would have to be the best one, onstage and off.

Whether navigating the backroads of Louisiana or Thuringia, exploring the snowy Quebec woods, or performing onstage at Rush concerts, Neil Peart has stories to tell. His first volume in this series, Far and Away, combined words and images to form an intimate, insightful narrative that won many readers.

Following in the tradition of Ghost Rider and Traveling Music, Rush drummer Neil Peart lets us ride with him along the backroads of North America, Europe, and South America, sharing his experiences in personal reflections and full-color photos. Spanning almost four years, these twenty-two stories are open letters that recount adventures both personal and universal — ; from the challenges and accomplishments in the professional life of an artist to the birth of a child.

Encyclopedia Gothica is a guide through that shadowiest of subcultures: modern Goths. It collects and defines more than 600 words and phrases used by these children of the night so that you too can engage in conversations about deathhawks and rivetheads and who is more übergoth: Bela Lugosi or Robert Smith.

An explosive, groundbreaking album that crowned a new king of rock in just 33 minutes

Edison’s Concrete Piano highlights the careers of famous inventors — revealing the lesser-known and most fascinating facts about their careers, their wackier hobbies, and especially their big flops and great successes. Take Thomas Edison for example, who revolutionized our world with the light bulb, the phonograph, and the forerunner to the movie camera. He also created a concrete piano, a non-operational helicopter made from box kites and piano wire, and a machine to speak to the dead.

Will eating insects change the world for the better?​

Meet the beetles: there are millions and millions of them and many fewer of the rest of us — mammals, birds, and reptiles. Since before recorded history, humans have eaten insects. While many get squeamish at the idea, entomophagy — people eating insects — is a possible way to ensure a sustainable and secure food supply for the eight billion of us on the planet.

Much like a pilot need not know the pure physics behind his flight, a skilled poker player need not know the pure mathematics behind winning poker play. Too often have poker books taken a purely theoretical approach to poker instruction.

Linus Pauling, one of the most celebrated scientists of the twentieth century, once remarked that satisfying curiosity is one of the greatest sources of pleasure in life. Dr. Joe and What You Didn’t Know to act as both the source and satiation of such curiosity, providing pleasure through a series of 99 chemistry-related questions and answers designed to both inform and entertain. Ranging from the esoteric to the everyday, Dr. Joe Schwarcz tackles topics from Beethoven’s connection to plumbing to why rotten eggs smell like rotten eggs.

The final installment of the critically acclaimed memoir series