Wild and Wacky (Picture Book Roundup)

I’ve been home sick this weekend with a sore throat and a bad cold. I’ve been getting raging headaches and have been sneezing incessantly so I haven’t been able to read anything full-length, but picture books have always made good bedside reading for me, hence this picture book roundup.

In today’s lineup are: A Day With Wilbur Robinson, Guild Geniuses, Pignapped, The Hair Scare, Klutz, The Lady with the Ship on her Head, Flotsam, and Swine Lake — books #155-162 for 2010

I hope this flu passes soon, I’ve got a lot to read for November!

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Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly

I have a weird fascination with all sorts of packaging, from breakfast cereal boxes to ketchup bottles, to contact lens solution, shampoo, and household cleaning products. Given an idle moment, in the middle of a meal, a shower, or even while waiting it out at the supermarket checkout lane, I end up reading a lot of product literature: nutrition labels, application instructions, lists of ingredients, foreign language translations, and of course, warning labels.

So when I found a copy of Wearing of This Garment Does Not Enable You to Fly by Jeff Koon and Andy Powell (illustrated by Tim Carroll) in a bookstore bargain bin, I just knew I had to get it for my humor book collection.

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You Are What You Read!

Scholastic is celebrating its 90th anniversary with the campaign “Read Everyday, Lead a Better Life,” which underscores the importance of reading as a pathway to success. Big names have gotten in on the action already — Sarah Jessica Parker, Whoopi Goldberg, and Taylor Swift are all part of the campaign!

Part of this campaign is the new social networking site for book lovers, You Are What You Read, and I’ve been meaning to try it out all week, but everything’s been such a flurry this week that I only had time to do it tonight. I must say, I’ve been enjoying it for over an hour already, and I haven’t even explored all of the site yet!

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Chindogu Mania, part 2

I really loved the chindogu book my cousin Chickoy lent me to cheer me up when I was confined in the hospital last year, so I set about to getting my own chindogu book. Luckily the first book in the chindogu series, 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions, also by Kenji Kawakami, was readily available on BookMooch.

Kawakami is recognized as the founder of chindogu, everyday gadgets designed to solve life’s little problems. Well, almost.

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Sabriel

I’ve always been curious about Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) because a friend of mine from college (hello, Tintin!) has been raving about it since we were in school — I remember her sneak-reading it in class, and I remember she even bought the cassette audiobooks and we listened to it in her car!

I’ve had the set sitting in my TBR pile for ages; I’ve always thought it was a bit too high fantasy for my taste. As you might have read in past posts, I balk at fantasy with unpronounceable names, made up languages, and maps; I usually prefer fantasy with some semblance of reality in it. But I listed Garth Nix in my A-Z Challenge purposely so I would be forced to read at least the first book of the trilogy, and I’m so glad I did.

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