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

The proof is in this light hearted 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 unauthorised 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 neighbours suspect neighbours 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.”