I was crawling through the web at lunchtime, and I chanced upon one of those articles about getting more views for the blog, and engaging the readers, and what not.
One of the suggestions was

Share with your readers some little-known facts about you.

And these being still the idle days after the winter festivities, I thought… why not?

Some little known facts about Davide Mana, Ph.D.

I collect books about insomnia

I’ve been suffering from insomnia since forever, and with time I started collecting books about insomnia and related subjects.
The latest entry in my collection is called This book will make you sleep.
Possibly related to this, I am in general a night person – and I work better after sunset.

I’ve been writing a tour guide of the night for over five years now

Possibly related to the previous entry.
The idea is to write a book about the night and everything about it: strange events, human physiology of wake and sleep, nocturnal animals, nightspots, astronomy and astrology, night creeps… everything you ever wanted to know as you go through the night, presented as an itemized tour guide.
Who knows, 2017 might be the year I finally start putting some order in my notes.

I am a chess player and a go player

And I suck at both – but when I was younger I was quite good.
During my high-school years I played routinely no less than five chess games a day.
Practice makes perfect, or so they say.
I was around 5th kyu when I played go as an amateur – nothing to write home about.
Back when I lived in a place where web connections worked, I used to play go online and was part of an internet go club.

I am an archer

I started at fifteen, using a simple recurve takedown bow.
Robin Hood and Green Arrow were early childhood heroes.
I still shoot a few arrows during the summer.

I also collect cookbooks

I had to start cooking my meals early on, due to a series of personal events, and I started checking out books to learn the ropes, so to say.
But what really got me hooked was the espionage angle – and Len Deighton’s use of home cooking in his books, and in The IPCRESS File movie.

And this is it.
Surprised? Shocked? Totally indifferent?
Will this post increase the number of visitors on this page?