Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone: A Fifth-Dimension Guide to Life

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Can you live your life by what The Twilight Zone has to teach you Yes, and maybe you should. The proof is in this lighthearted collection of life lessons, ground rules, inspirational thoughts, and stirring reminders found in Rod Serling's timeless fantasy series. Written by veteran TV critic Mark Dawidziak, this unauthorized tribute is a celebration of the classic anthology show; but also, on another level, a kind of fifth-dimension self-help book, with each lesson supported by the morality tales told by Serling and his writers. The notion that "it's never too late to reinvent yourself" soars through "The Last Flight,'' in which a World War I flier goes forward in time and gets the chance to trade cowardice for heroism. A visit from an angel blares out the wisdom of "follow your passion" in "A Passage for Trumpet." The meaning of "divided we fall" is driven home with dramatic results when neighbors suspect neighbors of being invading aliens in "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." The old maxim about never judging a book by its cover is given a tasty twist when an alien tome is translated in "To Serve Man."

Reviews

"Many of the chapter lessons may be familiar -- "Count Your Blessings," "Don't Live in the Past," "Be Your Own Person" -- but they are accompanied by engaging episodic parables from the five-season series, whose stories of fantasy and science-fiction, mostly dramatic but often leavened with humor, still wear well today." --USA Today

"For 'The Twilight Zone' fans, 'Everything I Need to Know' is an absolute treasure trove of bite-sized analyses of favorite episodes and situations." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"[An] illuminating book." --Newsday

"Mark Dawidziak's Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone blends a bemused revisit to a land of things and ideas with well-distilled analyses of the take-away lessons within." --Martin Winston, Newstip Bulletin

Author Bio

Mark Dawidziak is the television critic at Cleveland's Plain Dealer and the author of two histories of landmark series: The Columbo Phile and The Night Stalker Companion. Also a nationally recognized Mark Twain scholar, his books on the author include Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing and Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness. His work on the horror side of the street includes non-fiction books (The Bedside, Bathtub, & Armchair Companion to Dracula), a novel (Grave Secrets), a play (The Tell-Tale Play), short stories and comic book scripts.