Is there anything quite as reliable as a book? You don’t have to plug it in, it never runs out of juice, and on an airplane, you can use it whenever you want. Books transport us into other worlds and oftentimes, make us smarter than we were before we read them. And, books stack nicely on a shelf. I am constanly losing things around my house, but I can almost always find a book, probably because they have those nice titles on their spines.
Thursday’s posts will deal not only with books, but all things readable. I try to read about 3 books a week, but not because I can afford to buy that many. This is because we have a very good library system in Fort Collins; natural resource professionals and watercolor artists don’t get paid enough to buy a lot of books.
Let me tell you about a book I recently read (although in addition to words, the book is mostly images): The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race
How do I begin to tell you how funny this book is? It’s layout resembles a textbook and its intended audience (jokewise) is the space aliens who will eventually land on earth and colonize our planet. The graphics are superb, due to the fact that the finest designers on the planet—the guys at Pentagram—are responsible. If you elect to read this book, pay special attention to everything on every page, even the smallish photos in the margins. Nothing was left to chance here. Everything is a joke. One of my favorite photos is of business cards for enterprises that “just didn’t work out,” such as “Solomon’s Baby Dividers,” and “Zeppelin Delivered Fireworks.” You’ll find yourself laughing so hard you’ll snort. (Even though I checked this out from the library, I’m considering actually buying this one.) The best part is that the comedy writers embed so many facts that you’ll actually end up learning something while enjoying yourself.
I like the way you are writing about different themes.
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