David Weinberger goes looking for a "Da Vinci Code"-esque opening chapter for his book on the tree and leaves of knowledge and finds the beautiful and story full Linnean Society. If Weinberger buries those beautiful images later in the book, his agent is not going to be happy...
(yes, this is the same project that his reboot talk was about)
Classy, I haven't read "The Da Vinci Code," Linnaeus isn't intended to show up until Chapter 3, and the publisher doesn't want photos. But I like the way you're thinking: If the book sold one copy for every 100 "Da Vinci Code" did, it'd be a huge best seller. So, thanks for the thought!
Posted by: David Weinberger on June 18, 2005 11:41 PMI was just reacting to your description of the Linnean library - books, libraries, history and human effort on that scale is very emotional to me.
If you haven't wasted your time on The Da Vinci Code i strongly urge you not to - rarely has such a complete waste of time (it's not even a good thriller) been praised by so many.