“An original, fascinating, and beautifully written reckoning . . . of that great human passion: to write.”—Kay Redfield Jamison, national bestselling author of An Unquiet Mind Why is it that some writers struggle for months to come up with the perfect sentence or phrase while others, hunched over a keyboard deep into the night, seem unable to stop writing? In The Midnight Disease, neurologist Alice W. Flaherty explores the mysteries of literary creativity: the drive to write, what sparks it, and what extinguishes it. She draws on intriguing examples from medical case studies and from the lives of writers, from Franz Kafka to Anne Lamott, from Sylvia Plath to Stephen King. Flaherty, who herself has grappled with episodes of compulsive writing and block, also offers a compelling personal account of her own experiences with these conditions. “[Flaherty] is the real thing . . . and her writing magically transforms her own tragedies into something strange and whimsical almost, almost funny.”—The Washington Post “This is interesting, heated stuff.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Brilliant . . . [a] precious jewel of a book . . . that sparkles with some fresh insight or intriguing fact on practically every page.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Flaherty mixes memoir, meditation, compendium and scholarly reportage in an odd but absorbing look at the neurological basis of writing and its pathologies . . . Writers will delight in the way information and lore are interspersed.”—Publishers Weekly

Read the book that inspired the classic coming-of-age film before it's back onscreen in select theaters this September! From award-winning German author Michael Ende, The Neverending Story is a classic tale of one boy and the book that magically comes to life. When Bastian happens upon an old book called The Neverending Story, he's swept into the magical world of Fantastica--so much that he finds he has actually become a character in the story! And when he realizes that this mysteriously enchanted world is in great danger, he also discovers that he is the one chosen to save it. Can Bastian overcome the barrier between reality and his imagination in order to save Fantastica? "An instantaneous leap into the magical . . . Energetic, innovative, and perceptive"—The Washington Post "A trumpet blast for the imagination."—Sunday Times

To this day, The Neverending Story inspires readers around the world and awakens in them a longing to travel into the realm of fantasy themselves. But how can one find one’s way in a land without borders? Can its secrets be fathomed? Patrick Hocke and Roman Hocke open the door to Fantastica with this encyclopedia. The authors have researched Michael Ende’s world, scoured archives, and collected original quotations. They invite the reader on a journey to visit beloved and unknown creatures, to beautiful and eerie places in Fantastica.

A Little Girl Wants A Story That Never Ends. Grandmother Starts Off A Chain Story Typical Of Folk Tales The World Over. The Old Man From Madikere Comes To Bengaluru, The Old Man S Wife, Her Daughter, The Daughter S Doll, The Doll S Dog . . . And Then In A Clever Twist, Again Typical Of The Genre, It Fuses Into Another Story And Comes Full Circle - So It Can Never End! Bold, Stylised Illustrations Zoom Into The Story From Unusual Perspectives.

Filmer argues that, in secular society, the psychological need to hope is met in the literature of fantasy. She illustrates her thesis using the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Peter Beagle, Susan Cooper, Madeleine L'Engle, George Orwell, Russell Hoban, James Thurber, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Alan Garner, Ursula LeGuin, and Patricia Wrightson. Paper edition (unseen), $13.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Atreyu embarks on a mission to save the Empress and drive The Nothing out of Fantasia.

Like its companion volume, "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", this massive reference of 4,000 entries covers all aspects of fantasy, from literature to art.