Floating Off the Page - by Ken Wells (Paperback)

About the Book

Straight from the popular "Middle Column" in "The Wall Street Journal" come stories that open a window on the odd, bizarre, and amusing side of the human condition.

Book Synopsis

On any given day, millions of Wall Street Journal readers put aside the serious business and economic news of the day to focus first on the paper's middle column (a.k.a. the A-hed), a virtual sound-bubble for light literary fare -- a short story, a tall tale, an old yarn, a series of vignettes, and other unexpected delights that seem to "float off the page." In this first-ever compendium of middle-column pieces, you'll find an eclectic selection of writings, from the outlandish to the oddly enlightening. Read about:
- one man's attempt to translate the Bible into Klingon
- sheep orthodontics, pet-freezing, and toad-smoking
- being hip in Cairo, modeling at auto shows, piano-throwing
- the fate of mail destined for the World Trade Center after 9/11
- the plight of oiled otters in Prince William Sound

...and much, much more. Edited by 20-year Journal veteran Ken Wells, and with a foreword by Liar's Poker author Michael Lewis, Floating Off the Page is the perfect elixir for fans of innovative prose in all its forms and function.

Review Quotes

"Editor and Publisher Magazine" ""The Wall Street Journal" doesn't usually seem synonymous with humor" but this book "proves it too has a funny bone."

Andy Borowitz humorist, "New Yorker" and "New York Times" contributor Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely so funny and absorbing as these classic middle columns from "The Wall Street Journal." For A-hed addicts everywhere, this book is an unalloyed treat.

Michael Lewis author of "Liar's Poker" and "The New New Thing" For more than five decades, the middle column of "The Wall Street Journal" has been the antidote to boredom...[The writers] find a subject that is merely delightful to write about -- a man who has built a medieval catapult to throw grand pianos across his sheep pasture, for example -- and try to persuade you of its significance. Or not...The quality of the "Journal's" prose is always highest in its middle column because the people making it are having fun.

Terrific...for regular Wall Street Journal readers, this collection is a must. Those who think Wall Street Journal stories are only for the business-minded are in for an unexpected treat.

The Wall Street Journal doesn't usually seem synonymous with humor but this book proves it too has a funny bone.

Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it's rarely so funny and absorbing as these classic middle columns from The Wall Street Journal. For A-hed addicts everywhere, this is an unalloyed treat.

About the Author

Ken Wells is a novelist and journalist from the banks of Bayou Black in South Louisiana's Cajun county. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, the editor of two Pulitzer Prize-wining projects, and a former senior editor for Conde Nast Portfolio. He is the author of two nonfiction books. He spends his time in Chicago, with summers in Maine, and is an avid photographer, hiker, and fisherman.

Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of The Undoing Project, Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and three children.