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It all started with Iyengar’s “Light on Life.”

I was reading it in a nice hot bubblebath, when The Cop looked at me, scowled, and said, “You know what it makes me think, when someone puts a big picture of himself on the cover of his book?”

“No. What does it make you think?”

“That the guy’s a prick.”

I stood up for Iyengar. I get why The Cop is suspicious of large self-portraits on books. He is suspicious of large author pictures on the backs of books, and just beside himself about the idea of large author pictures on the fronts of books. I get that. My defense for Iyengar is that he is SUCH a cool looking fellow, with his huge eyebrows and exotic outfit — it just makes sense to have a big picture of him. I’ll bet his publisher made him do it. It wasn’t his idea. Plus, he’s laughing, so it isn’t one of those pompous serious-author pictures.

Okay, so I’m reading “A Brief History of Everything” in the livingroom. I’m sitting sideways in the easy chair, with my book facing The Cop, who is web-surfing on the couch.

“Another prick,” he says.

“Huh?”

He points at my book.

“It’s Ken Wilber,” I say.

The Cop raises his eyebrows.

I spend a little time looking at KW. The picture is a bit much. Very big. I go to the kitchen, find a sharpie, and write “Prick” on his forehead. The Cop is amused. I also notice that my relationship to the book changes. I feel less awestruck, and also less like the ideas contained in the book “belong” to this fellow on the cover. Interesting shift. In theory, the ideas KW expresses are part of our collective consciousness. So why the big old picture of an individual human on the cover?

After surfing KW’s website one morning, I order “Big Mind, Big Heart,” by Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel. When it arrives, I am confronted with another big author picture cover. Jeez. Okay, get the sharpie. “Another Prick.” Interesting to write this on the forehead of a zen master. It reminds me of my prejudice against American zen masters in general, and American zen masters who plaster their pictures on books in particular. Big mind and big heart is about ALL of us. Not just this cover boy. It’s not HIS idea. Sigh.

This morning I am doing some research for work. I have to give a presentation to the Board of Directors in a couple of weeks. My goal: get them sold on the idea of mass collaboration. My company is an educational association, and we’ve ALWAYS packaged and marketed what is ostensibly “objective” information (my philosophical gripe with the notion of objectivity is something I share in small doses, and I’m always met with incredulous looks — no doubt, those I’ve shared it with have written the word “Prick” on my forehead in their minds). Anyhow, I need to get the idea across that the notion of “expert” is evolving. That individuals can’t walk around feeling like exclusive repositories of all-knowingness. That continuous dialog and mass-collaborative knowledge-generation (think wikipedia) are the way to go.

I find a pretty good book on the digital economy and mass collaboration on Amazon. Why, though, do I feel reluctant to hit the “Add to shopping cart” button? Damn! Another huge author-face cover!

Seriously? On a book about mass collaboration?

Maybe this is just a fad of the book industry? I hope so. Because The Cop has ruined my ability to take these books seriously. He has seen my Buddha on the road and killed him.