As always, we’re busy reading the wires and scanning pages of magazines to find what we consider the top reads for freelance writers interested in perfecting their craft and building their business. This week: NEEERRDDDDDS!!!!

Now, on to the stories and happy Friday!

In anticipation of the biggest geek culture event of the year, Technorati’s series On the Road to Comic-Con highlights a part of the event that, ironically, gets very little play: the comics. Gilbert Hernandez, best known for his epic comic series Love and Rockets (and to answer your question, the band stole their name from his books),  talks to the blog about the business of self-publishing and self-promoting.

Here’s to Higgs. Wired.com has a list of the The Classic, Beautiful and Controversial Books That Changed Science Forever.

Feeling a little provincial in your literary tastes? You’re not alone. “When it comes to international literature, English readers are the worst-served in the Western world.” The Economist’s Prospero blog explains why.

Anderson Cooper’s recent announcement sparked quite a reaction on the internet including this Huffington Post analysis from publisher and editor Tracy Baim on the changing climate for LGBT journalists, “Back then, working in gay media was almost a death knell to one’s journalism career. Now it can be a stepping stone. Back then, the mainstream media looked down on journalists in gay media as biased …”

After quitting his job in advertising, photographer Roger Kisby embarked on a summer cross-country road trip and a documentary portrait project using a medium-format camera and chatting with his subjects along the way.

And finally …  Hacker hostels give aspiring techies a place to rest their weary robot brains while they dream up the next big Silicon Valley invention … Feeling crazy busy? No you’re not. … YouTube teaches life skills via Mashable … Freelance photographers get a camera bag that won’t embarrass them and helps them live out a photojournalism fantasy.

Related articles

• Andrew Miller: Unlike Anderson Cooper, Many Out LGBT Journalists Paid The Price, Paved The Way(huffingtonpost.com)

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• Gilbert Hernandez ‘Venus’ stories collected(digitalspy.co.uk)

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