The Labyrinth Index (Laundry Files, #9)

by Charles Stross

“A powerful glamour has engulfed the United States of America. It’s not the first time, of course—that nation is a shining temple to amnesia with its foundations built atop the bones of vanished empires

you can’t learn from a fatal mistake.

She counts the floor tiles once again, just to be sure they haven’t been breeding between eye-blinks, then checks the clock.

The reason micromanagement is a vice is that it’s a temptation to self-indulgence: it’s too easy to get carried away.