Teaser Tuesday (14 December)

Every week, ShouldBeReading hosts "Teaser Tuesday", in which participants share two-sentence excerpts from their current reads. Some of us are terrible at counting.

"Which of you is Rolf?" I shouted as I drew near them.

"I am," a black-bearded man urged his horse toward me. "Who are you?"

"Your death, Rolf," I said, and I drew Serpent-Breath [...].

p. 231, The Lords of the North. Bernard Cornwell

Writing, a cultural tool, has evolved to make use of the inferotemporal neurons' preference for certain shapes. "Letter shape," Dehaene writes, "is not an arbitrary cultural choice. The brain constrains the design of an efficient writing system so severely that there is little room for cultural relativism. Our primate brain only accepts a limited set of written shapes."

p. 74, The Mind's Eye. Oliver Sacks

"Tell her I'll be on Earth as soon as Enterprise can get us there," he said, "And with bells on."

One of T'Pol's eyebrows launched itself skyward again. "Respectfully, Captain, I would recommend a more dignified choice of apparel."

p. 18, Kobayashi Maru, Martin and Mangels