Always the best when you can drink your coffee from a good, solid diner coffee cup.

Designer Peter Mendelsund explains the cover design for Ben Marcus’s The Flame Alphabet.

KnopfDoubleday.com: The website for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which consists of the following imprints: Knopf, Doubleday, Vintage Anchor, Pantheon, Pantheon Graphic Novels, Nan A. Talese, Everyman’s Library, and Schocken.

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Writer Alec Wilkinson, author of The Ice Balloon, discusses how writers should ask themselves “Is this true?” whenever they write something. Says Wilkinson, “I think any writer who can put something on the page, and say to himself or to herself “Is this true?” and of course you understand I don’t mean literally true, I mean true to some emotion, true to some thought, true to some circumstance that was involved in the creation of whatever piece of prose or poetry you’re working on, I think that if you can satisfactorily answer that question to yourself, you’ve probably got material that will be interesting to a reader.”

Be sure to check out Brain Picking’s great article by Michelle Legro on Wilkinson’s book The Ice Balloon.

Prospect Park, Brooklyn, January 22, 2012.

Matt Mullin announcing the winners of the 2012 Publishing Innovation Awards.

Ken Wohlrob of the Random House Publishing Group accepting the award for the Jay-Z/Decoded app, which won the transmedia category.

Ryan Chapman (looking very campaign-trailish), introducing the 7X20X21 speakers at Digital Book World 2012. Speakers included Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr’s Literary Community Organizer; Ruth Liebmann, Director of Account Marketing at Random House; Emily Gould and Ruth Curry, Founders of Emily Books; and Ronny Golan, Founder and CEO of Bookpulse.

Rachel Fershleiser talks up Tumblr and books as part of the 7X20X21 series.

Ruth Liebmann, Director of Account Marketing at Random House, talks up independent bookstores and booksellers as part of the 7X20X21 series.

Of course the first snowstorm of 2012 was going to happen on the day of the Manhattan Half-Marathon in Central Park. It was cold, snow was falling, and the road conditions were a bit slippery. All of this made the run a bit more difficult. Those questions you ask yourself while running long distance runs, such as “Why why why in the fuck did I decide to do this?” stream through your head with a bit more urgency. The worst part for me is my non-waterproof gloves (great planning on my part, as usual) got soaked-through and my fingers were pretty much frozen to the bone for maybe 8 of the 13.1 miles. But in the end, such things just make finishing the race that much sweeter — the longer the distance, the more pain in your legs (and arms and back and neck), the more incredible it feels to run across that finish line. Would I do it again? Hell yeah I would do it again. But next time, I’ll wear better gloves.

Writer Ben Marcus reads from his novel The Flame Alphabet at Bookcourt in Brooklyn, NY, on Jan. 19, 2012.

Just had to get this coffee mug to use at the office. Love how the thin blue lines evoke memories of school days long past, as well as inspire me to break out a notebook and write.