it’s now less than three months before REST comes out. I received a draft of the book jacket yesterday, and it looks fabulous: it’s a nice warm, soothing blue, but still a color that jumps out at you. But in a restful way.

Reading proofs is always exciting, because it’s one of the clearest signals that the project is actually coming to a close. But the project also feels like it’s growing up.

According to his son Francis, Charles Darwin also had a special relationship with page proofs. He was a prolific author, and The Origin of Species and Descent of Man both went through many editions, so there were lots of pages to review. Francis wrote:

Then came the work of reading and correcting the proofs which my father found especially wearisome. He felt this to be the first serious consideration of style, for he always said that he could not judge of style till he saw himself in print.

I have a similar experience: my words read differently when they’re in print. Whether it’s an article of a book, the words make this alchemical transition from my own musings into the Stuff of Knowledge. The words feel less like my own, and I’m able to look at them one last time with a greater sense of detachment or objectivity.