That was the header of a piece of spam I received recently that struck my fancy because I think it pretty much sums up what happens when you read a good book.

And here’s picture/map that I think is so charming I decided to post it, although know nothing about it; I don’t know the artist or title–I’d guess it’s eighteenth or nineteenth century. It’s so clever! I’ve been wanting to share it ever since I first found it. Do any of our learned and esteemed visitors and friends know any more about it?

Other than the random nature of this post, I wanted to talk about my 2007, which has been a real learning experience, both good and bad. Here are some of my highlights, although some of them are things I’ve known for years but thought you’d like to know:

• Running out of tea is a state of national emergency.
• You really don’t need to clean your bathroom more than once every six months but it’s easier if you do it more often.
• TV is for folding laundry.
• It’s possible for a publisher to contract a book as one subgenre and market it as another and not tell the author.
• Google is for other things than looking up your own name.
• If you buy a case of toilet paper and live in a small house, after a while you get used to the box in the living room.
• If you squeeze a couple of pages out every day it amounts to more than if you don’t.
• When a cat sleeps on your bed with you, s/he expands to about a yard wide and 200 degrees.
• No one ever wants the last cookie, so go for it. You’re doing them a favor.
• No one ever wants to eat sardines or beets, but they don’t want you to eat them either.
• You should always carry reading material.
• Make sure you have sufficient dust bunnies, books, and old newspapers under the bed for any contingency.
• If you or the man in your life buys navy blue socks in bulk they will never match once they’re worn and washed.
• If you can’t avoid visitors, plug in the vacuum cleaner and leave it ostentatiously in the middle of the room. They will actually believe you are halfway through cleaning. (Of course, if you can’t find the vacuum cleaner you’re out of luck.)
• If there is a cold going around at work, avoid any bowls of candy on your colleagues’ desks.

Read well and respond urgently–share your pearls of wisdom with us!

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