I would read the atlas for pleasure. I knew it was weird. It was weird.

I always bring my kids vacation souvenirs printed in Comic Sans, so they know I love them but not unconditionally.

You live overseas, you see these exotic places and you want to know about them. But, weirdly, it also made me homesick for all these very prosaic places in America.

For me, it started as a child with one of those little wooden jigsaw maps of the U.S., wheres theres crocodiles on Florida and apples on Washington state. That was my very first map.

I have condemned my kids to a lifetime of geographic illiteracy.

Being a nerd really pays off sometimes.

I always feel a certain sense of reverence in libraries, even small city ones that smell like homeless internet users.