It was, undoubtedly, the year that the e-book exploded, and for consumers the consequences are undeniable—e-books are generally cheaper and more accessible than their printed-and-bound cousins. But the benefits of the Kindle and other e-readers come with a tradeoff, writes Mark Athitakis in our Arts in Review issue: "every e-book downloaded represents a tacit judgment on books in [...]

Steve Martin–known to boomers as "The Jerk," to hipsters as the jerk opposite Claire Danes in "Shop Girl" and, more recently, to your kid sister as Inspector Clouseau–is an accomplished banjoist. According to the New York Times, in the country/bluegrass community, Martin is an esteemed master of the difficult clawhammer playing style. Martin told [...]

The worst thing that's happened to me in months is the Amazon MP3 store, which every day has a "daily deal" that leads to internal dialogs like this:
Hey! Supertramp's Breakfast in America for only $2.99! I should totally get that!
Wait–you sing along with Supertramp on the radio, but there's probably a reason you don't own [...]