I’ve been meaning to give a nod to one of my favorite new (to me, anyways) blogs, Brain Pickings, for months now. Brain Pickings is a wonderfully curated art and culture blog with consistently high quality content. They definitely deserve an add to your rss reader (alternatively, you can subscribe to a weekly email digest as well). This week, Brain Pickings found some very nice vintage literacy project posters, the top-most of which suggests “read[ing] the books you’ve always meant to read” in March.

It got me a touch inspired to go for a monster novel this month, so off I went to Project Gutenberg for a free download of “Moby Dick.” Odds are very high that this book will not be finished in March, but I’m committed to getting started. I’ll also be on a boat for a week at the end of the month on vacation, so it seemed appropriate to have a seafaring read.

What about you? Any of you have a book you’ve always meant to get to? Why not start in March?

“Fear was the only factor found to significantly increase sublime feelings,” the researchers report. Having just been jolted by that frightening film clip “resulted in significantly higher sublime scores than all other conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other.”

The New York Times has posted its list of of “100 Notable Books of 2011.” As seems to be the case every year, I have read zero of them; I am, however, in the middle of 1Q84, hoping to finish over the long holiday weekend ahead, and enjoying every minute of it. More likely, I’ll pick off a couple of the big ones over the coming year. I’m thinking DeLillo, Foster Wallace, and Harbach at the very least.

So here’s a fun little question for you: the list is arranged alphabetically by fiction and non-fiction, why are 11/22/63 and 1Q84 located in their stack locations? It took me a moment to figure out. At first, I was slightly perturbed that they were burying Murakami’s work. Now I think it’s fair.

Opens in movie theaters, November 18th. Another story of dropouts changing the world.

A recurring plot with the right kind of dangerous consequences?

I love seeing architecture that challenges. This proposed design for Wadi resort is breathtaking, incorporating the local geography but creating something spectacularly human-made. Click through the link below to see all of the images. Beautiful, isn't it?

(via Dezeen » Blog Archive » Wadi Resort by Oppenheim Architecture Design)

When little Aiden toddled up our daughter Johanna and asked to play with her Elmo ball, he was, admittedly, very sweet and polite. I think his exact words were, “Have a ball, peas [sic]?” And I’m sure you were very proud of him for using his manners. To be sure, I was equally proud when Johanna yelled, “No! Looter!” right in his looter face, and then only marginally less proud when she sort of shoved him.

What it would have been like to have Ayn Rand as a parent. Shudder.

“Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is the name of a retail store/gallery/brand in Philadelphia that sells micro-produced goods in a manner inspired by the great Walter Benjamin essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. There’s a decent interview with the owner of the shop over on printeresting, wherein he discusses his world view and retail stance against the mass commoditization of all of our daily goods.

Hi everyone! I’m back from holiday and looking forward to another great year with The Puget News. For now, a quick video with some compelling storytelling. It’s one Vimeo’s top videos of 2009. Enjoy.

[Hat tip to the ever excellent kottke.org]

I had no idea that the process for Michelin Guide inclusion was so stealthy that the inspectors are urged not let their own families know what they do. John Colapinto of the New Yorker went undercover for a lunch with a Michelin inspector and brought back a fascinating report that’s well worth reading.

As a precondition of our interview, I was told that certain details of the inspector’s personal life would be obscured—or not divulged to me at all. When I asked her name, the inspector laughed nervously. “No,” she said. “Let’s not even say it. Make something up.”

The Michelin Guide, in comparison to other food guides, seems to make its reputation on selectivity and secrecy. While a long-standing success in Europe, it remains to be seen if it will get real traction throughout the US. New York, however, appears to be where they will establish their culinary beachhead.

Rushdie loves them. You probably will too...

Three of the writers collected in this volume are friends of mine: Grossman, Orhan Pamuk and Paul Auster. But writers talk less to each other about their craft than perhaps they should, so even in these cases what the interviews have to tell me is revealing. Auster talks about “reading with [his] fingers”, the act of retyping the whole book once it’s finished, and how valuable he finds it — “it’s amazing”. He marvels at “how many errors your fingers will find that your eyes never noticed”.