Coates is totally awesome. I remain so grateful that I stumbled on his pieces at The Atlantic several years ago when he still had open comments and an active and intelligent commentariat. That was such a rare and wonderful thing to get to read. I rarely commented, but I read it every day. And he himself even answered one of my questions once.

The book club thing they did introduced me to some awesome nonfiction -- it was during the period when he was reading up on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

At least I recognized how wonderful and fleeting it was at the time. An internet experience that is rare now that blogging has faded and Twitter has taken over.