Our Book of the Week this week is the entirely delightful A Velocity of Being: Letters to a young reader, edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick. The book comprises 'letters' from 121 interesting and inspiring humans on the transformatory power and general importance of books and reading. Each is paired with an illustration from a prominent artist or book illustrator. 
>>Writers include: Jane Goodall, Yo-Yo Ma, Jacqueline Woodson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mary Oliver, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth Gilbert, Shonda Rhimes, Alain de Botton, James Gleick, Anne Lamott, Diane Ackerman, Judy Blume, Eve Ensler, David Byrne, Sylvia Earle, Richard Branson, Daniel Handler, Marina Abramović, Regina Spektor, Elizabeth Alexander, Adam Gopnik, Debbie Millman, Dani Shapiro, Tim Ferriss, Ann Patchett, a 98-year-old Holocaust survivor, Italy’s first woman in space, and many more immensely accomplished and largehearted artists, writers, scientists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and adventurers whose character has been shaped by a life of reading.
>> Illustrators include: Sophie Blackall, Oliver Jeffers, Isabelle Arsenault, Jon Klassen, Shaun Tan, Olivier Tallec, Christian Robinson, Marianne Dubuc, Lisa Brown, Carson Ellis, Mo Willems, Peter Brown, and Maira Kalman.
>>See some sample pages. 
>>Maria Popova curates the book-positive Brain Pickings blog. 
>> Numerous contributors speak about the book. 
>>Some art from the book.