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Music gives the less writerly-insane parts of our brains something to do while we're putting words on a screen, and soundtracks are an excellent choice. Personally, I used to write to movie soundtracks (the TRON Legacy soundtrack is proof the universe wants me to be happy), but those can be tricky. John Williams' Star Wars soundtracks are amazing achievements but you're working away and here's the Imperial March and now you have to go march around your house like you're Darth Vader.

So for the past few years, I've switched to game soundtracks. Not the Tetris music (can you imagine? I would lose my mind), but the gorgeous and symphonic soundtracks with atmospheres. See, game music has recognizable themes, but also ambient background music, for those less exciting bits when you're running across a vast landscape or staring blankly at a jumping puzzle. This means you get wonderful ambient mood-music drifting through the background.

Want to try some videogame soundtracks out? Here's some suggestions.

It’s another snowy, yet busy, week in New York City.

This week offers the opportunity to get fancy at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with food, wine, and the brilliant words of Tiphanie Yanique. Are you a music lover? Head over to WORD Brooklyn and soak up the wisdom from an amazing panel of music journalists. There’s also the opportunity to see Lorrie Moore, Francesca Marciano, and Elizabeth McCracken at the awards ceremony for the Story Prize at The New School.

Whatever you do, stay toasty, and know that spring is on its way.

Are you an avid social media user but you’re getting a little sick of seeing the same cat memes over and over in your Tumblr feed? You don't really care anymore about the politically incorrect tweets from that guy you haven’t even seen in two years?

Well you’ve come to the right place! The following is a list of 10 social media accounts to spice up your feed if you’re book-minded or just need something new.

It’s icy out there, so this week we’ve put together a list of bookish events that will get you moving, clapping, amen-ing, and maybe even feeling a little hot under the collar. 

Photo via Harvard Gazette

I always loved the allure to writing letters. It’s a conversation that stretches over continents. There’s something incredibly romantic about that (at least to me). When I was younger, I had a penpal in New York. We wrote letters to each other often. I told her things I wouldn’t dream about telling anyone else because it felt like, even though what I put on paper lasts longer than any conversation, it felt safe.

Letters feel very safe.

So how about let’s exploit that a little?

To honor Letter Writing Week, I rounded up some of the best epistolary (letter-writing) novels I know. While I personally count diary entries as letter-writing, since we write it to our future selves (or imaginary friends, or our cat), I won’t include those on this list. Just purely letter-writing, fictional and non. And emails. And texting. And smoke-signals.