Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Eric Poor's new book Working at the Word Factory: The Curious Life of a Small-Town Newspaper Journalist is now available (and discounted!) for your reading enjoyment! This month, we ask you this question:

Do you still read an old-fashioned newspaper?
Why or why not?

Please share your thoughts (long or short) with us on our Facebook page or through email.

Reporter Eric Poor found himself flying in an antique WWII bomber one day and serving on a panel with a MAD magazine editor the next. He might be climbing a mountain in the snow to interview a man celebrating his 80th birthday and the next day be hitching a flight to Belize. His job as a journalist and photographer brought him countless adventures. Curiosity may have killed a cat but it makes a journalist’s motor purr.

If you are considering a life in journalism, or are just curious about what a journalist’s life is like, this book is for you. The author lays out both the challenges and the rewards, and leaves behind a number of valuable tips—for living and for writing—along the way.

Working at the Word Factory is now $15 (regularly $18.95) through August!

Sitting in a chair and reading a book is a little like doing the dishes. People respect you for it. And they leave you alone. For me, being left alone is one of life's highest pleasures. It's the reason I do the dishes.

Like so many people, I've been caught up lately doing everything except reading: stacking wood, studying Russian, buying screws and pizza shells, watching British murder mysteries, doing the dishes.

But this weekend I picked up a book to read strictly for pleasure. Bill Bryson's book about Great Britain, Notes from a Small Island, was waiting quietly for me on a coffee table, and I picked it up. I have now been transported to another land, in more ways than one. I had almost forgotten the sheer joy of reading.

It's a crowded little island, Great Britain. But how wonderful to be there all alone.

—Sid Hall

We are the Hobblebush summer interns Julia Geaney-Moore and Kylie Witt. Here we are doing a copy-editing job with our supervisor Holly. We have learned a lot about the world of publishing, including typesetting, proofreading, and designing books. We’ve also assisted Kirsty with marketing campaigns. We’ve enjoyed the variety of our experiences here, although our supervisor sometimes falls asleep on the job!