Yes, yes, we know Labor Day is just a week away. But when we heard these late-August book picks on NPR from the fantastic literary blog The Millions we thought, hmm, they'll help you stretch your summer reading, at least, all the way to winter!

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

Pastoralia by George Saunders

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis

A what alert? Their site explains: "A ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world.Once you've written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you'll never guess where (or even if!) it ends." Click here to give it a try.

The copyblogger website writes: "One would think that the wisdom of [advertising guru David] Ogilvy would have little application to social media marketing. However, I think his philosophies are dead on the money." Read how here.

A smart blog called Dumb Little Man "spent some time digging" through Purdue University's extensive online writing lab and distilled it down to 40 or so handy grammar tips, some with exercises, even. Good work! Check out the list here.

Here's a subject a bit arcane, but totally fascinating: Writing systems of the world's languages. How did they develop? What's the difference between logographic versus syllabic versus "abugidas" systems? Appetite whetted? Check out these books:

A History of Writing: From Hieroglyph to Multimedia by Ann-Marie Christin

The World's Writing Systems by Peter T. Daniels

Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction by Geoffrey Sampson

Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe

The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script by Maurice Pope

"Why do the people who write scripts for recorded announcements in elevators and shuttle buses and subway trains have such a tin ear for ordinary-sounding English?" wonders Language Log's noted linguist Geoffrey Pullum, after listening to a grammatically-challenged warning at the San Francisco International Airport. Why indeed? Read Geoffrey's thoughts here.