A closer look (at the book)

See here (N&N MP Book) for an overview of the contents below. As warned, this page has spoilers with respect to the puzzle(s) in the book (further down). To most closely simulate the experience of the unsuspecting original reader, you may wish to examine the PDF below without reading anything else about the book or really anything (else) on this site (so it‘s probably too late).

Hint: Look for a unifying theme (sometimes a few!) for each page/spread (pages 2-25). Some of them are more coherent (e.g., pages 2-3) than others (e.g., pages 12-13).

Mountain View, p. 2: Those are the calendar entries from our very first meetings—including a talk we co-presented in July 2013 on language acquisition! The quote is also genuine, uttered by Nancy within first 5 minutes of meeting Nick in appreciation of no longer feeling like such a black sheep.
Thanksgiving, p. 6: The “Shmooopie”-embroidered handkerchiefs are the handiwork of Madelaine (or her fancy sewing machine, at least); likewise the faux-nickname she faux-gave us, a reference to a Seinfeld episode. The handkerchief reappears in the MP finale puzzle.
Temples, p. 7: The quote at the bottom is a bonafide utterance from our tour guide in Indonesia, where Nick was constantly accosted by locals who wanted to pose with him for photos (January 2014).
Asia, p. 9: Nick has yet to visit the Great Wall, but the Shanghai Google office has a convincing facsimile.
Puerto Rico, p. 11: Nick actually managed to escape the group photo at the Future of AI conference we attended (January 2015).
Reunion, p. 12: He did not, however, escape getting a misleading badge at my class reunion (June 2014). Fake Harvard student!
Reality Checkpoint, p. 13: A beloved spot marked by the lamppost in the middle of Parker‘s Piece, Cambridge, UK; Nancy‘s home (Park Lodge) is visible in the background. (This page is the least coherent and thus most helpful for unlocking puzzle pattern.)
Oakland, p. 14: The potentially premature gift (from an SF boutique named Nancy‘s Boy) depicted was not from Nancy but from Praveen. The gift‘s trappings reappeared as part of the MP finale puzzle.
Paris, p. 17: The large number of photos here (particular N&N selfies, and of especially touristy locales) reflects the original Version 1 project, which was going to be based wholly on Parisian icons. (The expansion to include London/Cambridge/Oxford likewise explains the ample representation of English sites.)
Love, p. 24: Nerd Cougar^TM is the as-yet-untold chicklit version of life in the Googleplex, coming soon to a self-publisher near you (or it should be!). “Boy king of AI” was the label (title?) given to one N by an unknown speaker in a dream of the other N (hilarious enough to cause the dreamer to LOL and wake N-self up).
Love(birds), p. 25: Credit to Ari, who presciently drew these lovebirds for us within days of meeting Nick. (Artwork preserved and re-discovered on eve of puzzling day.)
Rebus, p. 26: Clues that may be helpful, for photos (left to right, top to bottom): (1) Nickname for this famous New York location; (2) Direction NC is pointing; (3) What Nick is labeled as doing; (4) French word for the product sold by this favorite merchant of Nancy‘s from the Marché Bastille.
MP, p. 27: Text (on page) was actually written for Version 1, in April. The bottom-left chat sequence (NH‘s report to NC of extended visa validity) appeared during the final few days of production, much to NC‘s delight. The ridiculous bottom-right photo came from the first Google holiday party we attended—pose suggested by the photographer! Awkward!
NN, p. 30: NN logo is carved into chocolate ice cream (not before a chunk was taken out of it). See original version below!

Enter if you dare…

Overview of 12 sub-puzzles

Annotated guide