Trivia, trivia

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I’ve thrived on a steady diet of trivia books since childhood,  because I’ve always been a sucker for useless information.

The compulsive book-finisher that I am, I like trivia books because I can read them in fits and starts, and I don’t have to worry about losing the storyline. They’re also great for cleansing the palate in between books, warding off boredom  in the middle of a book thats difficult to finish, or getting some breathing spac (erm, procrastinating much?) while taking on a tedious task — in my case, that’s often writing, or painting.

I just finished four of these books around roughly the same time: Lang’s Compendium of Culinary Nonsense and Trivia by George Lang; The Book of General Ignorance (A Quite Interesting Book) by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson; The Monopoly Companion by Philip Orbanes and Rich Uncle Pennybags; and How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening: A Collection of Literary Encapsulations compiled and edited by E.O. Parrott (books #162-165 for 2009). Continue reading “Trivia, trivia”

More Cahill secrets revealed in “In Too Deep”

intoodeepSurprising revelations are in store for 39 Clues treasure hunters as Scholastic’s landmark multimedia action-adventure series comes out with the sixth volume, In Too Deep, in the race to uncover the Cahill family legacy.

Jude Watson (a pen name for Judy Blundell) returns with her second book in the multi-authored ten-book series. Watson previously penned the fourth volume, Beyond the Grave, which led the series to jump on to the US national bestseller lists, hitting the highest bestseller list ranking for the series to date on USA Today.

In In Too Deep, Dan and Amy Cahill find themselves in the Pacific, where the adventure takes them out on the Australian surf, then deep into the Australian outback, and eventually in the tropics of Indonesia.

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Dahl-a-thon

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If there was one author I would recommend to every household library, I’d definitely recommend Roald Dahl. With dozens work under his name —  children’s stories for early readers and middle readers, children’s poetry collections,  short story anthologies, novels, memoirs, autobiographical essays, cookbooks, film scripts, and even guidebooks — each member of the family will find a book to enjoy.

I’m a big Roald Dahl fan, and I grew up reading his books, from the classic children’s books to the collections of twisted tales (which I really really love!). For the last 24-hour read-a-thon, I made sure to include some Roald Dahl books in the lineup.  His books are quick reads, and they never fail to crack me up, so I included three books this time around: Fantastic Mr. Fox; The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me(both I hadn’t read yet); and Esio Trot (which I have not read since high school), books 159-161 for 2009.

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Halloween Hop

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For Halloween this year, I had a bunch of readings that fell into the theme – Bloodline and Vampyre from my Dracula hangover and the 24-hour read-a-thon; and Perfume, left over from my derailed book discussion back in September that finally pushed through on Halloween weekend.

In this post are reviews of these three chillingly good reads (books #156-158 for 2009), as well as a recap of the latest Flips Flipping Pages book discussion.

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Salem ac Leporem (Naughty but Nice)

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Here’s another book you’re sure to get a laugh out of: How to Insult, Abuse and Insinuate in Classical Latin by Michelle Lovric and Nikiforos Doxiadis Mardas.

I found this book while randomly browsing on BookMooch and thought it might come in handy for those situations that just call for the choicest words.

For instance, when your credit card company calls you to follow up on your latest payment, instead of muttering “Monkey-faced money-lender!” you could exclaim its Latin equivalent and sound so much better  “Cercopithece Faenerator!”

Continue reading “Salem ac Leporem (Naughty but Nice)”