Most of them spent a summer doing it then frittered away into other kinds of hobbies. A few stayed, however, having found their vocation. They couldn’t understand how their friends played basketball while glaciers were melting and the future of humanity hung in the scales.

She stopped, foot on the penultimate step, hand on banister, heart in mouth. His sonorous grumble sounded again and she redacted the foot, turned and slowly undid her hopeful ascent.

When the horn sounded and 10,000 workers scraped back their benches, K417 stretched, yawned and tried to run through a quick mindfulness exercise before joining the line heading downstairs to the cafeteria.

How's your Rubix Cube of existence, thought 557, gazing out of his pod’s 3x3 window. Each pod interchangeable with the next. He could walk out his door, into his neighbour’s, do their tasks and go and sleep in their bed and no one would know any different.

Mother stood in the doorway, twisting a teacloth in her white-knuckled hands. Father had no more feelings to give. The son felt a fluttering bird in his chest, desperately caught between the bars of taking care of his parents and going overseas to get the bastards who did this.

Palast’s story helped me understand subprime lending and why Hurricane Katrina was so fucked up, but he also gave me a masterclass in the tricks, tools and techniques of persuasive writing. Lessons on writing #109: Vultures' Picnic by Greg Palast .

Wife. Kids. Mortgage. Were they really that easy to run from? I dropped my phone, wallet and keys in a bin in the arrivals lounge then walked out into the hot bright sunlight of a brand-new day, the first day of a new life, one where I was in charge, in control, and totally free.

It took the form of a child, maybe 3 or 4 years old, but soon it was the size of a gangly teenager, then a full-grown man stood on her desk. Hopped silently down and moved quickly, coming up behind her, raising his arms, stretching, looming over her, almost filling the room.

The book sat on a shelf with a growing pool of liquified people spreading around it. Dozens, then hundreds, then hundreds of thousands lined up for their go at the tome. Countless fell, torn apart by the banality, the sheer unbelievable mundanity of its message.

If you're feeling depressed then I'm sorry to hear it. All I can recommend doing is picking up some books because they might save your life. Read this if you're feeling depressed.