Today marks the 176th anniversary of the birth of the author, social activist, and humorist Mark Twain. As you can see above, Google chose an iconic scene for today’s Doodle, though they did go a little overboard with it.

But at least they chose a Doodle we all know. Even if you haven’t read the book, you should recognize the scene above. It’s been portrayed in so many movies and TV shows that it has seeped into the American cultural subconscious.

Mark Twain was born during the visit of Halley’s Comet, and he died shortly after the next visit 74 years later. He had many jobs during those years, including reporter, author, gold miner, lecturer, and malcontent.

Google is running a couple different Google Doodles today. If you visit the google homepage you will see a hand print turkey, which was posted in honor of Thanksgiving. But if you visit one of the other Google search pages (www.Google.pl, for example) you will see something completely different.

Today’s Doodle is dedicated to Stanislaw Lem, and it’s also an HTML5 game. While you might not know the name, I would bet that you are familiar with his work. This is a Polish born SF author whose works have been translated into 42 languages. His most notable work, Solaris, has been adapted into movie and radio productions no less than 4 times.

The Argentinian-born author, poet, and translator Jorge Luis Borges was born on this day in 1899. He was raised in Switzerland and Argentina, and died in 1986 in Switzerland.

Borges was a leading mind in science fiction as well as a pioneer in the magic realism genre.

Click here for a selection of past book and eBook related Google Doodles.

He is also known for writing fake reviews of works by authors who never existed. Of himself, he famously said, according to the Telegraph, “I am not sure that I exist, actually [...] I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors.”

Some of his most prominent works include Ficciones, The Aleph and Labyrinths, all collections of interconnected short stories

In the 1975, he published “The Book of Sand,” about an endless tome, whose pages can be looked upon only once. “Borges was blind by this point, but in his blending of worlds and epochs, fantasies and realities, he could be said to be glimpsing a fully digital future of infinite downloading,” writes the Washington Post.

Today’s Google Doodle honors the great musician Les Paul who would have turned 96 today. Shaped like a guitar fretboard, it actually plays guitar if you mouse over the strings.

Google visitors in the U.S. can click the black “compose” button to record a 30-second song. To record, play the strings, then click the black button again to get a link to your recording.

Les Paul was best known for inventing the solid-body electric guitar. To learn more about Les Paul, check out the Kindle books: 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul; The Les Paul Guitar Book; and The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy 1915-1963.

Sunday, June 5th, is the late Richard Scarry’s 92nd birthday. He is an American author and illustrator of children’s books who died in Switzerland at the age of 74. He’s worked on over 300 books, and is best known for his BusyTown series. Over 100 million copies of his books were sold, and they have been translated into 30 languages.

Today’s Doodle was inspired by BusyTown. The scene spotlights such Busytown critters as Sergeant Murphy, Huckle Cat and Doctor Lion.

If you missed this Doodle, you can find the Doodle archive here.

You probably know that every so often Google replaces its logo with a doodle.

Today’s doodle was inspired by the Mr. Men series of children’s books written by Roger Hargreaves. It’s cute and definitely worth a few minutes of your time. And when you do visit the Google homepage, be sure to refresh your browser so you can see the several alternatives.

Google celebrated the late Will Eisner’s birthday this weekend with a Google Doodle, dedicated to the legendary comic author. Artist Mike Dutton drew the above homage to Eisner, in which the ‘oo’s in Google have been replaced by the eyes of one of Eisner’s most famous characters named “The Spirit”, aka Denny Colt, a crime fighting detective.

Comic artist Scott McCloud wrote an official post on Google’s blog honoring Eisner. In the post, he talks about how influential Eisner was in American comics in the 20th century. Here is more from the post: “Eisner influenced comics in dozens of ways. In the ‘40s, Eisner’s The Spirit—a seven-page newspaper feature—introduced an arsenal of visual storytelling techniques still used generations later, and provided an early testing ground for future comics stars including Jack Kirby and Jules Feiffer.”

McCloud recalls that when Eisner had an industry award named after him, things got funny when he, himself, was up for it. “Inevitably, the prospect loomed that Will Eisner himself might win an ‘Eisner Award’ leading to some awkward choices; Hall of Fame, maybe? Lifetime Achievement? His only suggestion was ‘Most Promising Young Cartoonist.’ And so he was.”