11/1/2012: Rome Travel Book

I've always planned to travel to Rome someday, and this travel book is the one my grandparents used when they visited the city back in the 70s. I can vaguely recall them going, seeing pictures when they got back, getting the postcard and such. That's one thing I remember about them from when I was very young, they always seemed to be traveling off to somewhere exciting. And of course bringing me (their favorite grandson) souvenirs back.

See Also: Key Bowl

9/27/2012: Photo Albums

Gather round children and let me tell you a tale of yesteryear, a time when people would have pictures printed at Walgreen's or Target or some such place then gather these "photographs" into "books" known as photo albums. And also everything cost a nickel.

See also: Cousins Picture

8/11/2012: Elephant Book Ends

I sure do have a lot of elephant stuff it seems. These elephant book ends are just the latest of several elephant items. Previously there's been my wooden elephant and my carved elephant box.

5/27/2012: Hardcover Copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy

Figured I might as well keep the weekend's Douglas Adams theme going with the book that started it all, my hardcover copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy. Though technically what started it all for me was the original radio broadcast album, which my aunt was playing when we stopped over for a visit one evening long ago. It was the part where the whale and the bowl of petunias are called into existence above the planet Magrathea and we here the whale's inner monologue as he plunges to his death on the planet's surface far below. Funny stuff, huh? I was probably 13 or so at the time, and picked up the book a few years later. Picked it up again this afternoon.

See Also: Tattoo, Don't Panic Towel

5/26/2102: Tattoo

Yesterday I finally did it, finally got my tattoo. Right leg on the side of my calf. I'd talked about getting one for a very long time, and it's always been this, which is an illustration from the cover of my favorite book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I wanted something that was meaningful and would be meaningful long after I permanently scarred myself, not just something I liked now. And that book was hugely influential for me, it helped form my views and opinions on everything from politics and religion to British people and fjords.

(A sidenote to those people who got tattoos from the Harry Potter movies or, worse, Twilight: you're idiots. You love them now but in 10 years? I doubt it.)

See also: Don't Panic towel

5/25/2012: Don't Panic Towel

I received this Don't Panic towel as a gift, but not for my 42nd birthday (believe it or not). I wanted to post it today because May 25th is, as everyone knows, Towel Day. Why a day dedicated to towels? Well, as author Douglas Adams wrote in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a towel is just about the most massively useful thing found in the universe.

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

2/20/2012: Stack of Books #1

I'm counting this stack of books as one item rather than a dozen (or however many books it contains. I suppose I could count them quick... eh, whatever...) because once I've read a book, it goes on a stack and the stack itself becomes an item. Here's a mini review of the books in this stack, top to bottom:

Holidays on Ice/David Sedaris: A holiday classic, Sedaris' tale of his experience working Santa Land at Macy's reminds me of how horrible my retail Christmases were. In a hilarious way.

Syrup/Max Barry: Read Max Barry. Just do it.

I Know I Am But What Are You?/Samantha Bee: OK with some funny bits. If you love her on The Daily Show, you'll like her on paper.

Running With Scissors/Augusten Burroughs: Quite funny, even after finding out it was largely made up. Who cares.

Jennifer Government/Max Barry: Didn't you hear what I said already? READ MAX BARRY! His books are hilarious. Unfortunately he only has a few.

The Curious Case of the Dog In the Night-Time: I absolutely hated this book. The gimmick of the first person point of view of an autistic kid gets old very quickly. I honestly have no idea why I finished the book, especially since if I recall the "mystery" is randomly solved without build-up in the final couple pages.

Sex Drugs & Cocoa Puffs/Chuck Klosterman: Been awhile since I read this. I remember liking it... but nothing really specific about it.

Me Talk Pretty One Day/David Sedaris: The essay about explaining the Easter bunny to French people may be one of the funniest things I've ever read.

Possible Side Effects/Augusten Burroughs: OK, still funny, but not as funny as Running With Scissors.

The Tipping Point/Malcolm Gladwell: In a word; overrated. It was an OK, but all Gladwell did was identify the "tipping point" phenomenon in my opinion, he didn't really offer any "why" about it.

I Am Legend: I liked the movie, thought I'd check out the source material. This is actually a collection of short stories but I only read the one the movie was based on. Don't remember much about it actually, other than it was very different from the movie.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius & Life of Pi: There's a reason these two ended up on the bottom of the stack, I never finished either of them. Actually I doubt I even got 30 pages into either of them.