obsession
Couldn't stop, wouldn't stop, didn't see why anyone would ask.
The Empress and the File
What does a 19th-century empress do in a room called the Toilette- und Turnzimmer?
The Off-Center Wheel
Why would the man who invented the bit build a unicycle that bobbed up and down on purpose?
The Accountant of Skt.-Adolf-Wald
Issued one pencil a week, he spent thirty-five years balancing the ledgers of a universe he'd crowned himself emperor of.
The Man Who Set Mathematics Back a Month
He owned two half-empty suitcases, had 511 collaborators, and once won a $500 bet he immediately regretted.
The Man Without a Face
How do you lose the face of the man who coined the word cell, wrote a law of physics, and rebuilt half of London?
The Man Who Knew Paris
He kept a shoebox labeled Mouse Material; the archivist who finally opened it found the contents of a vacuum cleaner.
The Man Who Fed His Foot to Worms
What do you do when worms keep falling out of the ulcer on your foot, fifty feet above the ground, and you've been standing on a pillar for thirty-seven years?
The Autobiography No One Has Read
If you sealed your life story in an ancient jar, hid it with a chest of gold, and someone paid $48,000 for it six years ago — would you want to know why they never cracked the wax?
The Man Who Kept the Schedule
What do you find when you open a grave that belonged to a man who never stopped walking?
The Chair
What kind of performer turns down every replacement for a seat that no longer has a seat?
The Man Who Collected the World by the Ton
What happens when a man's collection outgrows every method of counting except weight?
Sir Thomas Phillipps Wanted Every Book in the World
What happens when a man who sleeps on a sofa because his bedroom is full of manuscripts finally has to move houses?