Robert Birnbaum didn’t let his bafflement keep him from enjoying cartoonist Hans Rickheit’s The Squirrel Machine. (“Let me know if you figure out what it’s about, though not knowing made it no less fun for me.”) . . . Norm Geras has posted a Boxing Day literary quiz on his web site. Twenty-five clues lead you to 50 writers. Send in your answers for a possible prize. From a quick look, I think it’s fairly tough — best of luck. . . . John Self discusses his year in reading, including a book that “at first seems ridiculous and laughable – and then seems ridiculous and laughable, but also clever and mesmerizing.” . . . Another book-related goal of mine in 2010 is to begin reading Robert Walser. . . . Maud Newton solicits support for what sounds like a very worthy cause, Girls Write Now, “a nonprofit organization that pairs at-risk teen girls with professional writers who support them. The pairs meet regularly, alone and in groups, and the girls who finish the program all go on to college.”