How many tiny choices do you make every single morning before you leave for work? SO MANY. Are you going out after? Is it going to rain? Are you run-ning any errands—do you have any coupons or cards for specific stores you need to bring? Do you have to mail anything? Is there a big presentation today? Do you have to get fancier at some point during the day—put on makeup or change shoes? Hot date—is sex a possibility? When you add up all these little questions and all their little answers, you get to the stuff that separates one day from the next. The way we approach and react to all these questions is what interests me. I wonder what you carry around with you.

So, what is this book?

Every page is someone’s stuff: I made a list of famous people and fictional characters and imagined what they might carry around with them. This book is my own sort of fan fiction—full of objects I think make people refreshingly inter-esting or refreshingly normal. We all have a lot more in common than we might know, and to think some of the world’s greatest makers and shakers also have to remind themselves to buy more toilet paper is something I find worth noting.

Why these people?

The people included in this book were chosen for a variety of reasons. When I first pitched this idea, I wanted to explore my fascination with the fact that by simply seeing someone’s belongings, you could gather so much information about them. I wanted to pick people that you would know in some way, people who have a historical influence on our culture—involved in politics, a prolific writer or musician, a known celebrity. I wanted to include famous fictional char-acters as well, as I thought it would be fun to explore what I knew about them while breaking the mold a bit.

I did some basic research and some deep Internet dives and chose facts I wanted to comment on in some way. I didn’t include everything, and obviously all these people are more multidimensional than these illustrations. These are just a slice of them, and what I wanted to highlight, to poke fun at, to expose. Some of it might not make total sense, but it might spark some curiosity.

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Introduction

For instance, Einstein hated to wear socks—he never wore them. So when you see on his page that he carries a pair (“in case anyone gives him shit”), it might not make total sense to you at first. But now it will and this was a HUGE SPOILER ALERT by the way.

My callouts throughout the book are from me directly to you. You’ll see. You’ll get it.

So I say, let this book wash over you like a spring breeze. Open yourself up to looking through people’s fake bags and be a voyeur into my colorful land of fake shit. The world is a scary fucking place and maybe this will take your mind off something terrible for a little while. Honestly, if that’s the case then I’ve done my job.

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Introduction