Songbirds Guitar Museum — opened in 2017 in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee — has more than 1,700 fretted instruments in its collection, touted as the world’s largest private one specifically of rare and vintage guitars. The collection’s value: more than $200 million. I recently visited the museum’s main showroom ($15.95 at [...]

The Grateful Dead composed many dozens of original songs over their 30-year career, from “The Golden Road,” the first track on their self-titled debut album in the mid-’60s, to a few in the early to mid-’90s that didn’t make it onto an album before Jerry Garcia passed away. Garcia was the main musical [...]

John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” centers on the Joads, a family of poor farmers suffering in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s who are lured to California by hopes of a better life and a handbill advertising work there. Their journey is filled with peril, hunger, loss, police persecution, [...]

Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” tells of a group of Soviet naval officers attempting to defect to the U.S. via the Atlantic Ocean in a highly advanced nuclear-powered submarine, as the Soviet Union gives chase with the intent to destroy and the U.S. attempts to secretly capture for study. [...]

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” follows hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he reluctantly goes on an adventure toward dragon-guarded treasure with Gandalf the wizard and 13 dwarves. Along the way, the troop defies death against many a foe but also is boosted by the friends they come across. Here are 10 of [...]

John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” tells of complementary yet contentious partners George and Lennie and their quest to acquire a place of their own so they can “live off the fatta the lan’.” Here are five of my favorite excerpts from the novella. Because of Steinbeck’s prioritization on storytelling, [...]