Bookish Amusements

In case anyone was wondering if I made any decision about bathroom reading material, I have. I chose a book called Quirky Qwerty. I am making my way through it very slowly since I don't spend much time there, but it is written to be read in short snippets. Already I have learned that Mark Twain was the first author to turn in a typewritten manuscript to his publisher. Twain, however, did not type it himself, he hired someone to do it for him. A really silly book that looks like it will be a good bathroom read is The Lexicon of Stupidity. My Bookman brought this home from work the other day and it has provided a few good laughs. In this book you will find gems like this one from 2bl 702 Radio Show, Australia:

Game Show Host:Which mathematician said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's incomprehensible"? Contestant: Mel Gibson

Or there is Justin Timerlake's repsonse to a Rolling Stone interviewer who asked him what the best thing he read all year was, "You mean like a book?" Or this bon mot from Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo: "The streets are safe in Philadelphia; it's only the people who make them unsafe." You get the picture of this fun little book. Another silly book my Bookman brought home, though not exactly bathroom material, is The Cookie Sutra. This is selections from the Kama Sutra illustrated with gingerbread men and women. The book begins with getting yourself ready for that special encounter. Grooming is important as illustrated by a gingerbread man with a cookie towel wrapped around his waist and a frosting lather on his face. The text reads "The wise gingerbread cookie truly understands the importance of sweetness, and strives to achieve it in all things. After all, if there's one thing a cookie knows, it's how to appear irresistible." These tips are followed by the cookies showing different sexual poses. "Splitting of a Bamboo" is one example. Girl cookie is on her back with a leg in the air and looking rather blissful. Her gingerbread eyes are closed and she has what appears to be a little frosting drool next to her smiling mouth. Boy cookie is holding on to her leg and--use your imagination here--smiling very big with his ginger eyes rolled up. The text explains, "Stretching can be an important prelude to sex. Or if crunched for time, the two may be combined. But one must not stretch one's partner's leg too far, for not everyone is a gymnast. Sadly." It is a funny book. And at the end of it is a recipe for gingerbread cookies so you can invent your own cookie poses. And something exciting here, our new main library that is being built made it to Book Standard! This summer they have been planting the roof. Yup, you read that right. It has a green roof that will catch something like 95% of all the rainwater that falls on it. What the plants don't need will be funneled off into cisterns to water the plants (with the help of a solar powered pump system) when it's dry. The library is supposed to open in May 2006. I can't wait for a multitude of reasons one of which is that the books kept there will be available for check out again. Most of them been in storage for the last two years. It never fails that at least once a month I search for a book that comes up as unavailble for check out because of it. But the building looks beautiful. I hope I'll be able to take pictures so I can show it off here.