Science fiction is, after all, the art of extrapolation. - Michael Dirda

Off and on during my life, I have passed sleepless nights in making up lists of the dozen or so books a person might choose to take along if suddenly marooned on a desert island. This is a relatively easy game for serious readers: At least half the titles would be recognized classics — the Bible, Plato, Shakespeare, a good dictionary, that sort of thing. But occasionally I have made the challenge a little more difficult: "What if you could take just one book?"

Fiction is, the art of making up something. That's what it's all about, folks. Making stacks of money.