Uncovering more books...

Some odds and ends to close out the week…

1) Some more stats from the booklist. Number of books that have been borrowed from a friend so long that it should technically be considered theft: 1 (sorry Kim, I’ll get it back to you eventually). Number of books outright stolen from my mother: 2 (Ulysses and my (ok, her) collection of Shakespeare). Number of books that I had in my room when I was six years old: 4

2) Here’s another fun one, the ten best titles in my collection. For those of you who like to judge a book by it’s cover

· A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
· The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupe
· The Muse is Always Half Dressed in New Orleans by Andrei Codrescu
· A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
· All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland
· The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
· The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke
· A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Julian Barnes
· Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Phillip K. Dick
· Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry

3) Absolute best news story of the week comes from Cambridge, England where a group of scientists are proposing transplanting animal species from Africa into the Great Plains of the U.S. The idea is to increase biodiversity and since the Great Plains once were home to wooly mammoths and saber tooth tigers then it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to support elephants and regular toothed tigers. (Ok, tigers are in Asia but stay with me). This is the best idea ever. Talk about making western Kansas and all of Nebraska a lot more interesting. People would actually want to drive through, it would be a much more convenient safari. Sure, we would have to contend with the occasional mauling but that is the price of progress.

4) For the record, the NOFX song is “Jeff Wears Birkenstocks” from Punk in Drublic. Don’t feel too bad, The Clash’s “Train in Vain” also made the soundtrack. Yes, the song that is not even listed on the liner notes for London Calling because the Clash knew that it could become popular now is being used in a video game. In a way I’m happy because I play NCAA Football a lot and getting to hear Ned’s Atomic Dustbin songs is pretty cool. But it’s sad to know that people I admire have been purchased by Electronic Arts.

5) Pretty much all for the night. I am so happy that Friday is upon us. This week has just been a killer at work and I’ve got a full schedule ahead of me for the next few days. Which should at least mean some new source material. Plus, I have a couple of new ideas for posts (in the theme of the Forgotten Television Shows series) that I’ll probably start next week. I’ll keep things interesting, I’ll promise you that.

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer everyone.