"When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced."
—Salman Rushdie

As we noted last year, our 14th great-grandmother, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, has many distinctions, not the least of which is her likelihood of having written the Shakespeare plays and sonnets. (For compelling evidence, see Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?) We couldn't help noticing that Mary Sidney's facial features bear an uncanny resemblance to the familiar Shakespeare visage. If the animated gif below doesn't animate, see the before-and-after frames.

(Thank you, editor-writer-critic Michael Redmond, for exclaiming, "Ah! The truth at last!")

Who could believe an ant in theory?
A giraffe in blueprint?
Ten thousand doctors of what's possible
Could reason half the jungle out of being.
—John Ciardi, qtd. in The Richness of Life by Stephen Jay Gould

via Clint Marsh

"I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even when they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the joys and sorrows of my relatives bore me to my soul.  Conversation takes the importance, the seriousness, the truth out of everything I think."
—Franz Kafka, from his diary, 1918 (quoted in Metaphor and Memory by Cynthia Ozick)

Speaking of Kafka, have we told you that New Star Books is publishing a book we illustrated entitled Kafka Franzlations: A Guide to the Imaginary Parables?

• what works best for you
• your incredible insecurity
• the individuals involved
• coaching
• a failure to execute
• money management
• a simple choice
• being a coward
• how much weight a name will carry
• behavior
• emotional chemistry
• how you spin it
• hitting a key on the computer
• forming a word
• freedom and choice
• rhythms
• what you know and what you don't
• using your brain
• trusting your gut
• this election
• desire
• dedication
• finding your market
• higher aspirations
• memory
• negotiation
• safety
• character
• what you're throwing out
• blood
• human beings
• one girl
• attitude
• priorities
• accepting responsibility
• which way you pass the butter
• greed
• trust
• control
• whether you want your life to be full of accomplishments and triumphs, laughter and good times, or anger and frustration, bitterness and disappointments

Thanks to AnitaAnswers for discussing our Follow Your Bliss tool in a thoughtful manner:

Why waste your time in a living hell?
You can live in cloudland just as well.
—Holly Johnson, "Heaven's Here"

"Writing is just a version of reading."
—Geof Huth

. . . which reminds us of Hemingway's description of "eyes like inkwells."

There's something beautiful that children don't learn in books of fairy tales.  In surrealist novels for grownups, the illustrations don't necessarily correspond to the text.  For example, in the dreamily Gothic Czech masterpiece Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, the illustration of a headless woman for page 149 appears next to page 106.  Prof. Oddfellow explains the phenomenon by way of Philip G. Zimbardo's Discontinuity Theory, which suggests that cognitive searches for rationality and normality may lead to madness.

Here's an insightful review of an unusual, gutted book that cannot exist digitally.

"The [computer] link will turn out to be the most important new punctuation mark since the comma."
—software architect Mark Bernstein

(Thanks, Gordon!)

"The act of reading impedes looking at words."
—Enrique Enriquez

"I want more than what I want."
—Salman Rushdie

"Does history record any case in which the majority was right?"
—Robert Heinlein

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
—Mark Twain

"When the majority is buying, you should consider selling."
—Greg Tanghe

"How delightful it would be to find a few people, or even one person, unconditionally thrilled by what one had to say."
—Leonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet

The problem with people is:

• inherent shortsightedness
• fickleness
• inability to communicate
• they're not all the same
• self-centeredness
• a lack of foresight
• overspending
• an unwillingness to pay their dues
• focusing on the destination instead of the journey
• taking themselves too seriously
• apathy
• inefficiency
• inattentiveness
• prioritization
• fear and confusion
• they make poor gods
• bargain hunting
• giving up too easily
• taking shortcuts
• an infinite supply of wants
• making small talk
• being only human

(we culled this list from popular books)

"Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself.  Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be.  Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter's tools.  Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end."
—Salman Rushdie