BookLust

Fightin' Words 3

The greatest mind ever to stay in prep school.

– Norman Mailer on J.D. Salinger

Silly Poetry Friday 33

How time flies when you're being silly! Yup – it's that wondrous silly day again. Today's poem was inspired by my Writing For Children class which I attended last night. Nope, nothing to do with writing, or children, for that matter. In fact, it's kind of a silly subject, but if not on this day, then I ask you, when can one discuss silly subjects?

Some of you may have noticed that yesterday was a lovely, warm day. So warm, in fact, that I slipped on my comfy flip-flops. While sitting in my writing class last night, I noticed that the attractive lady who sat next to me had slipped off her dress shoes. Well. She had the most beautiful feet. Well manicured, with sexy red painted toenails. Then I looked at my feet. Then I looked back at hers. Then mine. Then – ugh. My feet are scruffy and in need of some TLC. I keep promising myself that I will finally go get a damn pedicure, but it still has not happened. So I am making a promise here and now, that once I finish this one big project I'm working on, I'm treating myself to a pedicure, dammit!

And so in honour of scruffy feet and such, here's a silly poem written by John Updike, from The Oxford Book of Comic Verse:


In extremis

I saw my toes the other day.
I hadn't looked at them for months.
Indeed, they might have passed away.
And yet they were my best friends once.

When I was small, I knew them well.
I counted on them up to ten
And put them in my mouth to tell
The larger from the lesser. Then

I loved them better than my ears,
My elbows, adenoids, and heart,
But with the swelling of the years
We drifted, toes and I, apart.

Now, gnarled and pale, each said, j'accuse! –
I hid them quickly in my shoes.

Silly Divorce Walk

Remember that rant I wrote a while back about love, Elizabeth Smart, and her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept? Near the end of that post, I mentioned John Cleese, of all people, and how he preferred to have the stable Constable love over the erratic Van Gogh love. Well, oh dear, it looks like Mr. Cleese's Constable painting has turned into a nasty Van Gogh. After over 15 years of marriage, Cleese and his third wife, American-born psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger, are calling it quits. And it's going to cost him big, too. Said Cleese of his upcoming divorce, "It's going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny." Yikes.

I can just see Cleese now, talking to his lawyers...

"This marriage is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet it's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! It's metabolic processes are now history! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, It's shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-MARRIAGE!"

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Silly Poetry Friday 32

It's Friday morning, and I'm actually managing to post a silly poem on time! Now if that ain't silly, I don't know what is.

Today's poem is another gardening theme, because that subject is on my mind a lot now – I've got a great deal of garden work ahead of me, and somehow I have to fit it all in, in between finishing a big project that is overtaking my life at the moment. And so at stressful times like these, I find a healthy dose of Uncle Shelby always perks me up!

This beauty is from Shel Silverstein's collection of poems, Falling Up:

Unda Da Sea

Thought I'd share an illo I did recently for the May issue of ChickaDEE Magazine. It's half of a double page spread of a fun Sea Puzzle.

That's how I feel right now with my deadlines...under the sea of work...blub blub blub....

Me Like Books!

Author and illustrator Jeremy Tankard has done it again – created a sweet, fun picture book that is a joy to read over and over. Me Hungry is about a hungry little cave boy who goes on a little adventure in order to fill up his empty tummy.

Check out an interview with Jeremy, over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

And looky, looky! Jeremy's publisher, Candlewick Press, has even made some cute short videos about the book! Me like very much!

 Me Hungry 1



Me Hungry 2

The Waldo Ultimatum

Freakin' hilarious!

Thanks to Crooked House for this gem!

BiblioQuotes 7

"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."

– Katherine Mansfield

Random Readings 16

     Jane settled down on the bench and prepared herself for a long wait. She had brought along a box of tissues for her lingering sniffles plus two books. One was Magic by the Lake. She'd just gotten to the part where Katharine was stuck in the oil jar in Ali Baba's cave, and although this was the fourth time Jane had read the book, she was excited to read what came next. This is what made a book great, she thought, that you could read it over and over and never get tired of it.

– from The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

(A charming and delightful story, I might add. A real breath of fresh air amongst the glut of  YA 'issue' books out there)

Fightin' Words 2

A delightful barb to start your weekend right.

He leads his readers to the latrine and locks them in.

– Oscar Wilde on George Moore