I'm Trying To Make Sure

I Believe In Choosing The Hardest Book Imaginable. I Believe In Reading Up On What Others Have To Say About This Difficult Book, And Then Making Up My Own Mind.

I Don't Know Exactly How Long The Book As We Know It Will Exist, But I Fully Expect To Make It To My Death Without Having To Give Up On Books.

People Tend To Be Scared Of What They Can't See.

I Am In Boston Right Now, In Fact, To Do Work At The New England Historical Genealogical Library, Where I'm Trying To Finish Up Tracing My Lineage Back To The Seventeenth Century.

Cool Is Spent. Cool Is Empty. Cool Is Ex Post Facto. When Advertisers And Pundits Hoard A Word, You Know It's Time To Retire From It. To Move On. I Want To Suggest, Therefore, That We Begin To Avoid Cool Now. Cool Is A Trick To Get You To Buy Garments Made By Sweatshop Laborers In Third World Countries. Cool Is The Triumph Of The Will. Cool Enables You To Step Over Bodies. Cool Enables You To Look The Other Way. Cool Makes You Functional, Eager For Routine Distraction, Passive, Doped, Stupid.