Happy paper anniversary, Reckonings!

Very fittingly, today is the first anniversary – or in the traditional reckoning, the paper anniversary – of my very own book, Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History. In the past year I’ve given over a dozen talks about it, tweeted endlessly about it, and despite all of the chaos of a world still (still!) in the deepest clutches of the pandemic, had an awesome time with this book. I think it’s some of my best and most accessible scholarly writing on numbers and numeracy. So, happy birthday, book!

Anyway, as it is a paper anniversary, I would note that you could get yourself or a loved one (or an enemy, I’m not picky) the gift of paper, in the form of their very own copy of the book, which you can even get at a 20% discount this month when ordering it through Penguin Random House using the promo code MITPHoliday21, with free US shipping.

You can also help the book (and who’s kidding who, me) out in lots of other ways:

• Recommend the book for purchase to your local or institutional librarian. Seriously, folks, librarians are massively underappreciated and libraries are the temples of democracy / insert relevant approving metaphor here!
• Recommend that your local independent bookstore carry it. Seriously, I know that shelf space is a precious treasure, but I can guarantee it’s worth it.
• Write a review of the book online (on a blog, forum, or the website of your least favourite commercial bookseller) or for a journal (if you’re an academic)
• Write me about the book! I’m always happy to hear from folks who have read it and have something to say.
• Invite me to give a talk to your class / book club / convention / other fun event! I’m mostly scheduling online-only through the first half of 2022 but frankly, that makes it a lot easier to manage for everyone, pandemic or no.

Anyway, I’ll have more to say about numbery things in 2022 I’m sure – I have a bunch of projects on the go. Here’s to paper, and onward to … cotton? Who came up with this nonsense anyway?