On the Size of Thoughts

One of the most brilliant writers of our time, in my humble opinion, is Nicholson Baker. I first chanced upon his writing over twenty years ago - I believe in the New Yorker. I saved the piece, called The Size of Thoughts, and have pulled it out time and again to marvel at the way this man thinks. It has even proven to be a source of inspiration throughout the years.

Here is an excerpt:

Each thought has a size, and most are about three feet tall, with the level of complexity of a lawnmower engine or a tube of striped toothpaste. Once in awhile, a thought may come up that seems, in its woolly, ranked composure, roughly the size of one's closet. But a really large thought, a thought in the presence of which whole urban centers would rise to their feet, and cry out with expressions of gratefulness and kinship, a thought with grandeur, and drenching barrel scorching cataracts, and detonations of fist clenched hope, and hundreds of cellos; a thought that can tear phone books in half, and rap on the iron nodes of experience until every blue girder rings, a thought that may one day pack everything noble and good into its briefcase, elbow past the curators of purposelessness, travel overnight toward Truth, and shake it by the indifferent marble shoulders until it finally whispers its cool assent - this is the size of thought worth thinking about.

Isn't that amazing?! Ohh, to be able to write with such imagery. To think thoughts that tear phone books in half! I tell you, I aspire to the level of Nicholson Baker.

Mr. Baker's book is called The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber (ISBN 0-679-43932-3). It's likely the quirkiest yet most thoughtful and entertaining book you'll read all year.