Gary Marcus looks at “What Should We Be Worried About?”, a collection of essays by 150 top scientists and writers: “it may sound comforting to say that ‘the only thing we need to worry about is worry itself’ (as several contributors suggested), but anybody who has lived through Chernobyl or Fukushima knows otherwise… many of the essays are insightful, and bring attention to a wide range of challenges for which society is not yet adequately prepared…” http://nyr.kr/1084vun

The Paradise of the Library: James Salter on Jacques Bonnet’s 40,000 volume personal library, and his new book “Phantoms on the Bookshelves”: http://nyr.kr/Pqz8oc

A tide is coming in and the kingdom of books, with their white pages and endpapers, their promise of solitude and discovery, is in danger, after an existence of five hundred years, of being washed away. The physical possession of a book may become of little significance. Access to it will be what matters, and when the book is closed, so to speak, it will disappear into the cyber. It will be like the genie—summonable but unreal. Bonnet’s private library, however, comprised of more than forty thousand volumes, is utterly real.

Shouts & Murmurs: Bob Odenkirk’s vision of the future “It’s the year 2367 and all food is gluten-free…” http://nyr.kr/MHaw6o