Table of Contents
Introduction xv
1 Create an Overview Effect 1
2 Encourage Moments of Yugen 3
3 Astonish Your Words 5
4 Turn This Book into a Shovel 7
5 Go Sinister 9
6 Assemble a Shadow Box 11
7 Arrange a Wunderkammer 13
8 Design a Mappa Mundi 16
9 Forge a New Identity 19
10 Pursue Astral Pareidolia 21
11 Construct a Curvilinear Terrarium 23
12 Contrive a Shrine for Colors 24
13 Quest for Your Daemon 26
14 Quiver a Witch Stick 28
15 Drink Air 30
16 Novelize a Thrift Store 32
17 Transform Trash into Art 34
18 Haunt Your Haunts 36
19 Rearrange Your Childhood Bedroom 38
20 Celebrate the Uninteresting Stuff 39
21 Get a Zero 40
22 Alienate Yourself from Yourself 42
23 Memorize a Poem Peripatetically 43
24 Comb Plato's Beard 45
25 Irritate a Narcissist 47
26 Listen to the Glass Wizard 48
27 Snort a Quarto 49
28 Fabricate a Story That Has Never Existed Before 51
29 Review Books That Do Not Exist 53
30 Imagine Your Life as a Peculiar Novel Written by a Lazy God 55
31 Crank Some Microfilm 56
32 Welcome the Earworm 59
33 Conceive a Curse Word 61
34 Hatch an Aphorism 63
35 Conjure Your Own Medieval Monster 66
36 Chinwag with Your Evil Twin 68
37 Dress Your Döppelganger 70
38 Journey to the Uncanny Valley 71
39 Consider a Victorian Doll 73
40 Pass to Narnia 74
41 Get from A to Z 76
42 Sacralize the Absurd 78
43 Do Nothing 80
44 Turn Off the Sound 82
45 List Your Top Five Weird Actors 83
46 Cop a Deadpan 84
47 Watch Strangers Watch You 86
48 Perform Dorian 88
49 Stare at Someone for a Long Time 90
50 Visit an Abandoned Building 92
51 Pen Obituaries 94
52 Rub a Tombstone 96
53 Doodle Around Your Grief 98
54 Explore Your Dark Corners 100
55 Suspend a Pomander 101
56 Attend Your High Drone 102
57 Drop Pennies to Wake Yourself Up 104
58 Decide If You Are Asleep or Awake 106
59 Scry 108
60 Cast a Magic Circle 110
61 Cut Your Own Tarot Deck 112
62 Master Legerdemain 114
63 Eat Spheroids 116
64 Fancy a Nook 118
65 Carve Soap 119
66 Mix Your Own Color 121
67 Make Ink 123
68 Inscribe Your Own Runes 125
69 Dream a Game of Surrealism 127
70 Lay Off 130
71 Save a Nihilist 131
72 Press Phosphene into Being 132
73 Hear Your Own Ears 134
74 Taxonomize Silence 136
75 Anatomize Something 137
76 Identify with Your Hydrogen 139
77 Distort Time 142
78 Collect Toadstools 145
79 Kick Over a Log 148
80 Sniff Play-Doh 150
81 Look Up 151
82 Build a Model of Your Foot 152
83 Seed a Wasteland 154
84 Compose Your Own Atlas Obscura 156
85 Speak "Takete" 158
86 Form a Word That Is What It Means 159
87 Paint Stones 161
88 Be a Prophet 162
89 Swerve 163
90 Play the Flâneur 165
91 Take Your Turn 167
92 Glance Askance 168
93 Perform the Percy Switcheroo 169
94 Spend a Day as a Termite 171
95 Frequent a Shoreline 173
96 Manufacture a Portable Door 176
97 Fear a Height 178
98 Author Your Own Lexicon 180
99 Complete a Final Project 182
Acknowledgments 183
Resources 185