My mom wanted sons who were "Renaissance Men". Since then I've used an endless curiosity and finely-tuned ADD to chase down whatever's interested me. I pick up a random obsession and run with it a while. Our house is littered with entire back catalogues of music acquired after hearing one song. In the kitchen, loads of cookbooks, marked up in notes and sauce while seeking to make the perfect pizza dough. I'm married to an English teacher which means that my contributions to our wild bookcases are mostly digital. I learned later that by "Renaissance Men", she meant having sons who knew how to iron their own shirts.