Rainn Wilson's SoulPancake

"These things," he said, pointing to the rows upon rows and stacks upon stacks of books at the Strand Bookstore, "these things you see here are books, my friends. BOOKS. You all may be too young to know what they are, seeing as you all look freshly into or out of college and read from plastic and metal appendages that pose as books." He looked out through his hipster spectacles at the crowd of 20-somethings on the edge of their seats, craning their necks and their iPhones to get a good view of him so they could tell their friends that they saw Dwight last night.

"Does anyone have any questions?" he said, laughing, because he had said but one sentence and the normal chain of events calls for questions at the end of a presentation, not at the beginning. His outcry was met with silence. "No, really. Does anyone have any questions?" That's what his book SoulPancake is about. It's about questions. Based on a website he created with a few friends called... you guessed it... SoulPancake, the book dives deep into lifes biggest questions.

And I know you're probably thinking that within these pages he'd answer questions such as, how do you deal with a black bear attack vs. a brown bear attack, to which he'd obviously answer:



But the questions asked and answered on the website and in the book are... actually... quite profound. There he was, Dwight Schrute in the flesh, talking about love, and the universe, and human connection, and what the difference between right and wrong is. He quoted philosophers and transcendentalists, (we even had a round of applause for the latter), he told us about his son and his wife whom he loves more than anything. He was sincere, he was straightforward, he told everyone to take everything in life with a grain of salt. Because you may think one thing, and others may think another... and that's okay.

Throughout the book, Rainn puts his two cents into each of the 180 questions posed... but there are other guest authors as well... Exclusive commentary from the fascinating minds of: Amy Sedaris (!), David Lynch, Heather Armstrong, Dr. Drew, Jesse Dylan, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) (!), Harold Ramis, Josh Ritter (!), and Saul Williams.

Buy it. Or I will buy it for you for Christmas. Whichever comes first.