Combining memoir, social criticism, and research, the author explores what it means to be solitary and celebrates the notion, common in his Roman Catholic childhood, that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling. Delves into the lives and works of nearly a dozen iconic "solitaries," including Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Bill Cunningham, Cézanne, and Zora Neale Hurston. "A meditation on solitude as a font of creativity and spirituality. Known...

"A guidebook for cultivating the surprising joys that come from living an off-kilter life We crave the weird-the quirky, the eccentric, the peculiar, the freaky, the far-out-because it takes us out of our normal habits of thought and perception, nullifies our old conceptual maps with which we navigate our lives, and propels us into uncharted regions. Or to put it more simply: weirdness is essential to an interesting life. In How to Be Weird, Eric...