Inside the List - NYTimes.com HELP, THANKS, WOW: There was a time, three or four years ago, when it seemed every novelist had a blog, and why not? Blogging gave writers another way to reach readers, to promote their work or air their grievances or test their ideas in mini-essays that played to their strengths. But technology evolves, and despite some notable holdouts (Elif Batuman is one) Twitter has killed the blogging star. Now writers connect with their publics in 140 characters or fewer. The medium especially favors authors with distinct voices, preferably funny ones, who can toss off pithy observations or one-liners - authors like Anne Lamott, say, whose new book, "Some Assembly Required," enters the hardcover nonfiction list at No. Lamott's best writing has always had the dashed-off immediacy of a good tweet; her excellent 1993 book "Operating Instructions" strung together one punch line after another to capture the joys and anxieties of her son's first year of life. The new book is a sequel - her son (and co-author), Sam, now has a son of his own - and to promote it, Lamott has been posting her daffy, neurotic, inspirational shtick in the telegraphic shorthand that Twitter followers are used to. From an airplane on the first leg of her recent book tour, she wrote: "New low @ 30,000 feet - checked Amazon sales rank of "Some Assembly . . . " @­samlamott trying to wrestle iPad out of my hands. I need air marshal. Later, in Washington, she was more reflective: "D.C.; cherry blossoms in full pink pyrotechnic bloom. Humbling & convincing (but I'm easy). 3rd great prayer, after Help and Thanks, is Wow! Almost 20 years ago I sat in on Lamott's writing class in Marin County, Calif., where one of the students turned out to be her former elementary school principal. Even in second grade she'd been a bundle of comic nervous energy, he told me. We all knew she was going to be a star. DAYDREAM BELIEVER: The science journalist Jonah Lehrer tops the hardcover nonfiction list this week with his new book of popular neurology, "Imagine: How Creativity Works." As he did in his previous two books, "Proust Was a Neuroscientist" and the best-selling "How We Decide," Lehrer surveys the current state of research and builds a host of anecdotes into a larger story about how the brain functions: in this case, to help foster our imaginations. Not everyone is persuaded - at The Washington Post and the Web site The Millions, reviewers have questioned whether the science is as clear-cut as Lehrer claims - but even skeptics praise his command of the material. And he has a passion for translating scientific concepts for the rest of us. On NPR's "Fresh Air," Lehrer told Dave Davies that amphetamines had helped Auden hone his poems and that relaxed people are more likely to have flashes of inspiration. "If someone's in a good mood, you know, they'll solve more problems," he said. This also explains, of course, why the shower is such a rich source of epiphany . . . because we are very relaxed. We're letting ourselves daydream. We also can't take our smartphones into the shower, at least not yet. Tune in, turn on, log out. ON THE PULSE: The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209, but it hasn't had an official writer in residence until now. That writer? The spy novelist Ted Bell, whose thriller "Phantom" is new at No. 7 on the hardcover fiction list. In a March interview with the conservative online news agency Newsmax, Bell called Cambridge "spy heaven." "We're looking at real-time intelligence on a daily basis, on an hourly basis," he said. I've got my finger on the pulse, as it were.