McCarthy's Southwest, by Zach

Over Thanksgiving I visited the small town of Marfa, Texas. It was my first time to venture out that way, and I was pleasantly surprised by how mountainous the region actually is. After guessing many times along the way which side road is in fact included in the Coen Brother's depiction of No Country For Old Men, I couldn't help but imagine the violent but utterly beautiful Southwest illustrated in Cormac McCarthy's novels.

Litograph #2: If on a winter's night a traveler, by Italo Calvino

Reading a book about reading a book about...  from If on a winter's night a traveler, by Italo Calvino.

...Adjust the light so you won't strain your eyes.  Do it now, because once you're absorbed in the reading there will be no budging you.  Make sure the page isn't in shadow, a clotting of black letters on a gray background, uniform as a pack of mice; but be careful that the light cast on it isn't too strong, doesn't glare on the cruel white of the paper, gnawing at the shadows of the letters as in a southern noonday.  Try to foresee now everything that might make you interrupt your reading.  Cigarettes within reach, if you smoke, and the ashtray.  Anything else?  Do you have to pee?  All right, you know best.