It used to be, when it came to food, people had a sort of devil-may-care just-put-the-food-in-your-damn-mouth attitude. This is no longer the case. Today there is more culinary-related material to sift through than ever before: Books! Magazines! Zines! Websites! Cookbooks! GOOP! If you live in one of the country’s many rapidly gentrifying cities, there is probably a new restaurant on your block every 15 minutes. On TV every day there is a new cooking show followed by a cooking competition show followed by a four-hour block of Rachael Ray talking to a backyard ghost about empanadas (log on to rachaelray.com to see Rachael and the ghost compete to make nachos).

This month, New York advertising man and chronicler of the wealthy set Richard Kirshenbaum (pictured) published a new book, “Isn’t That Rich? Life Among the 1%.” We tried to interview him about it. It did not work out.

Rhonda Byrne got very very rich by writing a book called The Secret, which contains much pseudoscientific/ mystical horse shit. Why can’t Rhonda Byrne get THE SECRET to work for herself?

It’s time to move on, J.K.!!

Do your charitable donations suck? Are you failing to save lives due to greed you don't even realize you have? Do poor people have the right to take all of our stuff? One of the world's most famous philosophers talked about these very topics with us.

Jill Abramson, who was unceremoniously ousted last year as editor of the New York Times, has signed a $1 million book deal. Her book's topic will be "the future of media in a rapidly changing world." This development can be interpreted as folly, or farce.

Nicholas Sparks once wrote, "I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours." But that was in a book. In real life, he and his wife of 25 years have separated.

Since its publication this fall, Lena Dunham’s bestselling essay collection, Not That Kind of Girl, has inspired her fans and offered a different kind of inspiration to her foes. The right-wing press, in particular, has taken Dunham’s discursive set of autobiographical writings as a tip sheet to potential scandals and crimes involving the author—who is, as a paragon of metropolitan lefty pop culture, clearly a degenerate.

What were the best movies of 2014? What 2014 TV shows should you catch up on? What were 2014's biggest songs? And why trust just one outlet for answers when you can try all of them?

Mark Leibovich, a national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, is one of the few prominent "mainstream" political reporters who does not make you despair for journalism. He's zesty! And he's here now to answer your question on Washington, politics, power, and his new book.

Jonah Lehrer, a disgrace and a bullshit artist, has gotten (another?) book deal, because white men fail upward. Lehrer, who was revealed to have fabricated quotations in his 2012 book about Bob Dylan, as well plagiarized himself and others for the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, Wired, the Boston Globe, and the Guardian is working on a book with a UCLA professor about "how we think and behave differently on screens." (How do we behave, Jonah?)

Stephanie Clifford, a New York Times reporter who is 36 years old, has just received a seven-figure book deal for her first novel. It's already been optioned for a movie as well.

Economic inequality in America has reached staggering levels. Union membership has reached all time lows. What is the future of labor in America? Let's discuss it right now, with author and labor expert Stanley Aronowitz.

Powerhouse Arena, a Brooklyn bookstore-slash-events space, is hosting a party tonight for Thug Kitchen, the duo behind the website and cookbook of the same name that has been accused of trafficking in a version of blackface.

This week, rich and famous human Lena Dunham will begin her 12-city book tour. Several dates will feature regular people performing. They will not be paid. Let's do the math on that. (Updated below.)

Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. A wanted man, he recently began his third year living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. He joins us now to answer your questions about his new book, When Google Met Wikileaks.

A programming note: tomorrow (Monday) at noon Eastern time, Julian Assange will be online here to answer reader questions about his new book, When Google Met Wikileaks. Join us then.

Gwyneth Paltrow, a book author, is not someone we commonly associate with libraries, because they have dust, and that dust is not macrobiotic. But she is a dedicated reader, or, at least, a dedicated recommender of books, a fact of which we have clear and incontrovertible proof in the latest issue of GOOP.

According to the BBC, the much-laureled writer Nadine Gordimer has died at her home in Johannesburg at the age of 90.