Category Archives: Non-fiction

May 16, 2013 · 5:00 am

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

image

Ooooo criminally-insane, murder-mystery, literary non-fiction goodness. You could seriously pour chocolate on this and gobble it up.

I’m feeling lazy (I might be getting sick, yuck), so I’m just gonna go ahead and post the description of the book here from the back of the book:

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W.C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

 

That sums it up so well! Way better than I could have. But yeah, so basically the HUGE project of creating the Oxford English Dictionary involved asking volunteers to send in quotes for words both common and rare, in order to best be able to trace the history and all meanings of each word. I guess I never really thought about what an impressive project that would be, especially back then. Seriously, we live in a world today when we can look everything up on the Internet. Everything. And I knew few people even own paper dictionaries anymore because most of us can just type a word we need a definition for into our phones and get it. I can’t imagine living in a time before dictionaries when you would think “Hmmm I wonder what the word means” and NOT have a way to look it up! I finally understand why Shakespeare’s crazy ass never makes any sense to me – he didn’t have a way to check if a word was a word already invented, if he was using it correctly, or if it was even spelled correctly.

So yeah, back to the book. This one guy, W.C. Minor, had a whole lot of time on his hands since he was locked away for being criminally insane and ended up contributing a TON of quotes to use in the OED. So many so that James Murray realized it and eventually went to meet Minor, and the two kind of became friends.

Well clearly I’m not going to tell you why Minor was locked away – how crazy he was or what crime he committed. That would ruin the fun! But this is a lovely, nerdy book if you care at all about literary history or lexicography. I learned way more about the making of the OED than I never thought I would, and I enjoyed the tale of crazy that surrounds Minor, and the lovely hint of bromance between him and Murray.

 

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

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May 15, 2013 · 1:00 pm

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea’s Family, Friends, and Other Victims

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I find Chelsea Handler hilarious. She has that perfect amount of meanness about her that I find endlessly amusing. I wish I could watch Chelsea Lately more, but dude it comes on late and I am a bum that likes to go to sleep earlier than that. This review probably won’t be very long, which is why it’s beefed up with Chelsea Handler GIF’s.

chelseas duh face

So this, as you can probably guess, is a book compiled of stories from various people in Chelsea’s life about the lies and pranks that she pulled on them. OBVIOUSLY you’re in for a good treat there. Since each chapter is by a different person, there were some chapters that just didn’t work for me because I didn’t like the person’s style or tone, but those were just a couple. There were several chuckle-worth moments and one part in particular that actually had me laughing hysterically (at work, so it’s a good thing I work alone).

Damn... I should've read this book while drinking...

Damn… I should’ve read this book while drinking…

What I liked in particular though is that all of these people, after ALL of the crap that Chelsea has pulled on them, still totally love her. Almost every story mentioned that if she’s screwing with you, it’s because she likes you, and that no matter what she’s an awesome, loyal person. Sure they could just be saying that to suck up to her, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. One story in particular about how she tricked her friend into stashing Excedrin into her lady parts (she told her friend it was Ecstasy) to get through the airport security actually revealed that lengths that she would go to help snap her friends back to reality when they’re going down a bad path.

chelsea judges you

Soooo other than that – a funny book that makes me laugh and also makes me wish that I knew Chelsea Handler in real life – what else am I supposed to say? It’s funny and amusing, read it when you need something a quick book that’s light and fluffy. I bet it’d be a GREAT beach read.

chelsea says enoy

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

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May 8, 2013 · 2:05 pm

Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson

neil degrasse tyson

 

 I think it sucks that being smart isn’t considered cool. (I’m not talking about you book bloggers – obviously you think being smart or bookish is cool.) I think it sucks that science as a whole isn’t more appreciated these days. You’d think that given all the super impressive technology that we have these days, science would be held in the highest esteem. That parents would be urging their kids to get into any kind of science – astronomy, engineering, physics, chemistry… ANYTHING besides more doctors and lawyers and sports stars. But nope. This book was kind of a relief because Neil deGrasse Tyson feels pretty much the same way.

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier is a collection of articles, interviews, and essays by Tyson about pretty much one subject – the importance of NASA and space exploration. It’s separated into three sections: WHY, HOW, and WHY NOT. Tyson’s enthusiasm for space is infectious. You can’t help but be excited about it. Tyson calls out the NASA skeptics, goes over some of the technology we have today thanks to NASA, talks about why it’s so important that we continue to explore space with humans and with robots, and just so much more.

In all honesty, the format for this book - that it’s a collection of articles and such written over the past fifteen years instead of just a plainly written book – was not my favorite. It led to a lot of repetition on some points, and no sources are cited besides where each article or interview was originally featured.  I ended up looking into a few of the things he mentioned myself. For example, did you know that NASA’s budget per tax dollar is one half of one penny? Tyson mentioned that several times, and I did a bit of looking around online and it appears to be accurate. That means that only about $20 of all the federal income tax I paid last year went to NASA’s budget. Their budget is less than 1% of the entire federal budget. That is insanely low.

Tyson goes on to point out that space exploration (and in fact, scientific research in general) is never well-funded by the government until there is a clear military or monetary need.  He talks about why space exploration is still so important – for the sake of research, innovation, the economy, and more. He laments that America is falling behind in technology and science now when we were so clearly ahead decades earlier. He discusses the current idiocracy* trend happening now (also called anti-intellectualism), and I nodded along the whole time. And during all of this, he is absolutely brimming with excitement for space, and for those of us who are scientifically curious even if we’re not working in a science-related field.

Let’s face it – I was all for space exploration before I read Tyson’s book. He didn’t need to convince me there. I did however learn more about the history of NASA and why it’s so underfunded right now, and a few other things along the way. So, if any of you are NASA skeptics or don’t have an opinion as of yet, maybe read it and let me know if it swayed you in any way? Either way, read it and we can chat about it!

I feel like this review has been all over the place, and that’s because I basically want to share every little awesome factoid or quote with you and I’m restraining myself, because really- just read it! It’s only about 260 pages. The chapters were relatively short and held my attention, and I enjoyed the “Space Tweets” from his Twitter account sprinkled throughout the book. I highly recommend reading this – there isn’t any scientific lingo or anything that you’ll have to struggle through, I promise. It’s just a really passionate plea from an astrophysicist who wants to see America become a great leader in space exploration again.

 

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars

 

*Have any of you seen the movie Idiocracy? It’s awesome.

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April 26, 2013 · 9:14 am

My Beloved Brontosaurus by Brian Switek

Brian Switek

It’s been a long time since I’ve really thought about dinosaurs.

I read a really great review for My Beloved Brontosaurus, and then the last time I was at the library I saw it right there on the “new non-fiction” shelf and I grabbed it immediately. This review has been hard to write so far, because my brain is literally teeming with all the things I’ve learned about dinosaurs and there’s a part of me that just wants to go on a never-ending ramble about all of it like a little kid. 

So, dinosaurs! Remember them? I haven’t really learned anything about dinosaurs since middle school, and what I learned was this: Dinosaurs were big, scary reptile-like things that walked around until an asteroid killed everything on Earth. I mean, that’s basically the gist of what we learned. And when I heard of My Beloved Brontosaurus, I thought “Hey, that sounds like a fun book on a topic that I basically know nothing about.” And it was! Also, pretty much everything I learned about dinosaurs in middle school was wrong.

This book is really well-written, and discusses a whole wide range of dinosaur topics. Stuff that I never even thought of, like how dinosaurs got their groove on, what illnesses they suffered from, if they were social or solitary creatures, what they actually looked like (shock to me that a whole lot of them had dino fuzz and/or feathers), what they might have sounded like, and why they didn’t survive whatever killed them off. All of this is interspersed with Switek’s own personal recollections of fossil excavations, interviews, and trips. The chapters were concise, well-organized, and flowed smoothly.

My favorite thing about this book is that the author’s passion for dinosaurs and paleontology practically radiated from the pages. Writing good non-fiction for the average reader is HARD. What makes non-fiction books particularly enjoyable, at least for me, is when the author clearly enjoys the subject matter. If the author is really excited about what he’s writing, then it’s more likely that the readers will find interesting as well. Also, there were unexpected bits of humor in this book, especially in the chapter speculating how dinosaurs might have mated. 

 Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Like I said, dinosaurs wasn’t even a topic I was particularly interested in, more than idly wondering if we’ll ever bring them back from extinction like in Jurassic Park. And… now I’m more curious. I kind of want to know more about the dinosaurs. It bums me out that we’ll probably never know enough about them. I’ll be keeping an eye out for other interesting paleontology books, as well as for future books by Switek.

I definitely recommend checking this book out. Also, I hear that the dust jacket folds out to be a poster! I couldn’t check that on the library copy, but I plan on buying my own copy anyways.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

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April 20, 2013 · 6:00 am

The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Apocalypse by Sam Sheridan

doomsday prepper

Just pretend for a minute that the worst has happened – there’s a major apocalyptic event that means you’re on your own. There’s no police, no government,  no food, water, or electricity. Are you prepared?

Sam Sheridan has a ridiculously impressive resume – MMA fighter, student of muay thai, farm hand, wildland firefighter, sailor, and the list goes on. But after becoming a parent, he suffered from insomnia and worried constantly about those never-ending disaster scenarios and whether or not he’s prepared to take care of himself and his family. The answer was to set out to learn whatever he could to be ready, just in case that day ever comes.

The post-apocalyptic world has become a really popular topic for movies, TV shows, and books over the past several years, and I think it makes everyone think “What would I do if I were in that situation?” Despite that, I’m sure not nearly enough people have actually taken steps to prepare for it. In my home, we lean on the “prepper” side – having extra food and water stored, having a bug out bag (or “go” bag), having batteries, candles, and more all set aside just in case something goes wrong. What I really liked about this book is that Sheridan realized that while all of that is well and good, there are skills you might need if the world is coming to an end, and he set out to learn what he could. This is NOT a how-to book. The Disaster Diaries is just about one guy’s quest to learn some things that might be useful if the shit ever hits the fan in a majorly catastrophic way, and it provides some really interesting insights along the way.

I really enjoyed this book, because Sheridan presented many angles that I never thought of and he did so with impressive references and research. It also made me want to do ALL THE THINGS. He goes on to tackle Olympic weightlifting, gun shooting, how to start a car without a key, hunting, knife-fighting, emergency medical care, and more. The start of each chapter starts with a little fictional glimpse into himself trying to keep his family alive in a variety of disaster scenarios, and each chapter ended with the skill he just discussed saving their asses. You wouldn’t think that learning how to stunt drive a car would be handy in a post-apocalyptic world, but it turns out it probably would be.

And for those of you thinking to yourself that this is all a bunch of crap that only paranoid people would worry about, I give you this nice tidbit from the last chapter:

“Preparing for the apocalypse is essentially about walking the line between paranoia and self-reliance. To me, the definition of paranoia is a little like the definition of addiction. If something is destructive to your life – takes your job, alienates friends and loved ones – then it’s an addiction (or paranoia). If it makes your life better, it’s not. By keeping my preparation mostly in the arena of self-reliance and knowledge (as opposed to the “my fallout shelter has four-and-a-half-foot-thick walls” arena), I have only made me life better. I’ve enjoyed learning new skills for dealing with new scenarios – and the confidence that comes with it.”

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars

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April 8, 2013 · 6:00 am

Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing by Hod Lipson & Melba Kurman

fabricated book cover

If you haven’t heard about 3D printing yet, you clearly have been living in a cave and ignoring all the news. Go to Google Images RIGHT NOW and type in “3D printed objects” and look at all the cool stuff that’s been made with 3D printers. I’ll wait….

You back? SO COOL, right? Right.

I’ve been hearing about it a lot lately, but the concept of 3D printing was really hard to wrap my head around. And then I heard about this hot-off-the-presses book all about 3D printing, so obviously I had to read it right away. You know those replicators on Star Trek? That’s basically the future of 3D printing. And if the thought of having one of those in your house years from now doesn’t excite you, I don’t even know what you’re doing here.

Fabricated introduces the reader to the world of 3D printing, which is changing and advancing at a rapid pace. The book starts off with a “day in the life” scenario set decades from now and gives a glimpse of what life with a 3D printer in the house would look like. It then delves into the specifics of 3D printing - the technology, how it works, the different types of 3D printers, the current limitations of 3D printers, and more. Then it moves on to some of the issues surrounding 3D printing – trying to use different materials to print with, how they can be used in schools, how it’s currently affecting manufacturing and how it will continue to do so, the legal snags that will eventually happen, how to make 3D printing more green, and what the next phases of 3D printing should look like.

Ya’ll, this book is FASCINATING. And no fear -  it was completely readable and easy to understand, even for someone who has no background in technology or computer lingo. Personally, I found the more technical chapters to be the most interesting – the software and materials used, how 3D printers work and operate, how advances are being made in bioprinting (like printing living tissue and organs), and how 3D printers are currently being used, etc. That was all the stuff I really wanted to learn about to understand it better. The chapters about legal and ethical conundrums that are likely to arise were an added bonus and really thought-provoking, since it talked about things I hadn’t really considered before.

In the preface, the authors say this:

“One of the great things about 3D printing is that the field moves faster than the speed of light and technological advances take place in huge leaps and bounds. Yet, rapid innovation is a difficult topic to capture. Just as you figure out how to pin down an elusive and squirming new idea onto paper, it’s already out of date.”

Which basically means that they worked their ASSES off to get this book written and published ASAP, before the information became out of date. It just came out in February, and I can tell that it was rushed to get on the shelves because I noticed a few grammatical errors and typos. It didn’t bother me, because I actually really appreciate the rush. I like my non-fiction as up-to-date as possible, so that was a perk.

I’m really excited about 3D printing. It’s the coolest technology being advanced right now, and if I had lots o’ money just sitting around, I would totally invest in 3D printing companies and technology.

If you’re even a bit curious about this 3D printing thing, I highly recommend reading this book and doing so quickly while the information is still current!

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars

 

 

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April 4, 2013 · 7:53 am

Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees

Martin Rees

This may not be the sharpest review, because I finished this over the weekend and I’m feeling a bit lazy this morning. I shall try though!

I COULD describe what this book is about to you in my own words, but part of the blurb on the back does it so well so here ya go:

“The nature of our universe is remarkably sensitive to just six numbers, constant values that describe and define everything from the way atoms are held together to the amount of matter in our universe. If these values were “untuned” there could be no stars and no life. This realization offers a radically new perspective on our place in the universe, on the deep forces that shape, quite simply, everything.”

Yup. Sounds like a page-turner, right?

Actually, it was really engrossing and as it’s only about 180 pages long, it was a good book that I read pretty quickly. As always when I read science books, I pay attention to the publication date – this was in 2000, so some info or things may have changed since then but if so I didn’t notice it. Sooooo, do you wanna know the six numbers that help shape our universe? Of course you do!*

  1. Ν / Nu – A ratio of the strength of the electrical forces that hold atoms together compared to the force of gravity (basically, gravity is super super super weak)
  2. ε / Epsilon – Defines how firmly atomic nuclei bind together
  3. Ω / Omega – Amount of matter in the universe
  4. λ / Lambda – A cosmic force of “antigravity” that seems to be affecting the expansion of the universe
  5. Q – Ratio of how much energy would be required to break apart a large “structure” like a galaxy compared to it’s rest mass energy
  6. Δ / Delta – How many spatial dimensions there are in our universe

And basically if any of these numbers or values were just a teeny tiny bit off, the universe wouldn’t have evolved the same way and we most likely would not be here. Fascinating! Right? Well shut up, I think so.

Martin Rees also talks a bit at the end about how you can take all of this information. He talks about the obvious – that some people will take the fact that the universe seems to have been made perfectly so that we could exist is proof of God’s existence, or that some people will say it’s just a coincidence. What I liked most was that he proposed a third way to think about it – that our universe is just one of a larger multiverse. It could be that these numbers are different in other universes, that the laws of physics as we know them only apply to our universe. You guys might know that I’m a fan of multiverse theory, so I was really happy that he discussed that possibility.

Overall, Just Six Numbers was a really interesting read. My only real complaint is that a summary or glossary or something would be handy as a reference – I like concise definitions, and sometimes even after reading a whole chapter I had to look up the number being discussed to make sure I was grasping the concept correctly. But basically,  think all science-y books should come with a glossary built into it somewhere, cause come on – it’s just helpful.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

*I hope I used all those little Greek symbols right.

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January 31, 2013 · 8:00 am

The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless by Elinor Burkett

childless, non-fiction

My thoughts about The Baby Boon are a little scattered, and reviewing non-fiction is always a little hard, so I apologize if I end up making no sense.

I feel like I need a bit of an intro here… I don’t have kids, and really don’t want any. I just… don’t.  Also, this book was published in 2000, so it’s almost 15 years old at this point.

Okay so the book is about how basically in an effort for politicians and lawmakers to look “family-friendly” and hence get more votes, they’ve created a lot of policies that end up discriminating against people who don’t have kids. People with kids get a crap ton of extra tax deductions and tax credits (for each kid they have), which means the childless are getting stuck paying more than their fair share in taxes. It’s mandatory that companies offer maternity leave (I think the average is about 12 weeks) for women who have babies, but there is no comparable benefit available to people without kids AND the employees without kids often pick up the slack while a woman is out on maternity leave, which violates the “equal pay for equal work” laws. And society as a whole has also picked up this weird trend of catering to people with kids – some companies offer reduced rates on day-care services, some offer to help pay your kid’s tuition, etc. Stores now have “Expectant Mother” and “Women with small children” parking spaces next to the handicapped ones. All of this is SO frustrating for people who don’t have kids – whether they want kids but can’t have them, don’t have kids yet, don’t want kids, aren’t allowed to adopt kids (this mostly refers to same-sex couples), older people who had kids that are grown now, etc.

So, let’s talk about some of the things I enjoyed about this book.

  • Burkett talks a bit about how and why exactly this family-friendly craze came about.
  • She pointed out that feminist organizations were also a part of the family-friendly movement and they supported a lot of the laws we have now that favor families and ignore the childless. It’s something I hadn’t really thought of before, but these organizations were trying to gain more followers by supporting women with children who were trying to get into the workforce – but by doing this, they have essentially pitted mothers against childless women, which contradicts the point of being feminist and supporting ALL women.
  • She discussed how shortly after the family-friendly trend started, the “for the children” trend came along glorifying children and proclaiming that they were the most important thing and have the be protected from everything. And from that, we now have laws that increase the penalties of spousal abuse if it’s witnessed by a child. THIS IS SO STUPID. Way to devalue the life and health of the woman being beaten by her husband.
  • Burkett also mentioned that the childless even get discriminated against in other basic areas, such as medical care. It’s not uncommon for doctors to refuse to perform voluntary sterilization on child-bearing aged women who haven’t had kids yet, and some doctors insist men without kids go through counselling before performing a vasectomy on them. Yet there’s no counselling required to have kids…

I could go on and on about the many issues that Burkett touches on in this book that I appreciated, or that are just SO UNJUST, but let’s move on to the things I didn’t like about this book.

  • The beginning and end of The Baby Boon were most enjoyable and readable because those were the parts that focused on the issues above. The middle got bogged down by a lot of politics. The author went back and forth with “and then Clinton did that” and “Republicans did this” and it got confusing as well as boring. I appreciated her trying to point out how exactly the family-friendly craze started, but she didn’t do it in a clear and concise way. It muddled the point she was trying to get at.
  • She tried to tie class issues into this, and it was a mess. Yes, I agree that the poor deserve a little more help than the middle class people making a lot more money. But this distracted from the overall message of not discriminating against the childless.
  • I wish there had been a section on what you can do to fight this inequality, or a list of organizations to support for that cause, but there wasn’t. However after looking online, maybe that’s because short of childless people starting to sue their employers for discrimination, there’s not a whole lot we CAN do yet. That’s really sad, because I would totally join that organization. We need a lobbyist group for childless people.
  • She ended the book on a hopeful note, saying that in the future years the childless people would start to be more outspoken and try to fight this discrimination. And it just made me sad, because 15-years later the situation is possibly even worse than when she wrote this.

SO. The Baby Boon was pretty interesting and had a lot of good information and made a lot of good points, but I didn’t love it because of that big political section in the middle. Finger-pointing at whether this is all the fault of Republicans or Democrats isn’t helping anything. I did really enjoy reading something that matched my general outrage at a lot of these things though, and I think I’m going to search out more books about being childfree.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

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January 9, 2013 · 4:36 pm

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku

Hyperspace, Michio Kaku

Hooray! Finished my first non-fiction/science book of the year!

Soooooo, Hyperspace is about string theory, and how string theory predicts that there are 10 dimensions and all the cool stuff that we would be able to do if this was true and if we could “harness the power” of hyperspace AKA all the dimensions.

I went into this book kind of reserved – partly because it’s almost 20 years old – it was published in 1994. So you know, some of the science that Michio is discussing in the book is a little old, theories have changed a bit, technology has certainly changed a lot, etc. (Hey Michio Kaku, if you’re reading this you are awesome and you should consider writing a revised edition of this, kay?)

Because this is one of the first books I’ve read that really focuses super hard on string theory, I don’t know how exactly it has changed or evolved over the last 20 years, other than it’s still one of the leading theories for a Theory of Everything but hasn’t been confirmed as such because it can’t really be proven experimentally or mathematically, at least not yet. And while Michio didn’t convince me that string theory is “it”, I did learn some stuff.  If you’re interested in physics or string theory, you should read this. It’s pretty easy to understand.

While I can’t comment on the rightness or wrongness of a lot of this book, I did enjoy it. I learned things, and it made me think. I like it when books make me exercise the muscles in my brainpan. Also, I’m pretty sure Michio is my favorite physicist. His enthusiasm for physics is so exciting, and I LOVE that he gets all nerdy about Star Trek and uses examples of physics in literary fiction to get his points across. Also, he joined the US Army during the Vietnam War and talked about how while he was learning to throw grenades and dodge machine gun bullets, he was working on physics-related equations and solutions in his head. DUDE IS AWESOME. (The Vietnam War ended before he was ever deployed though, so yay.)

Michio Kaku, Doctor Who

Michio.

This was a good book. He went into the history of different theories and mathematics a lot, which was interesting (although some of it I already knew, which makes me happy cause it means I’m actually retaining information from reading these books). I liked trying to envision other dimensions and trying to wrap my brain around it, however futile (our human brains literally cannot fathom the idea of more than 3 spatial dimensions). I really hope that we find out in my lifetime what exactly the Theory of Everything is in my lifetime. I don’t know if Michio is backing the right team or not, but he does of good job of getting you excited about the whole search for it, no matter which theory ends up being right.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

(Psssst. I’ve also read another book by Michio Kaku - Physics of the Future, if you want to check out that review. It was a really awesome book.)

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January 5, 2013 · 6:00 am

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores

 

MAN I miss working in a bookstore. Or at least, I miss working around books. Cause let’s be honest, working in retail kind of sucks and interacting with customers can be such a headache sometimes. But that’s what this book is about!

Basically, Jen Campbell works in a London bookstore and was amazed at the weird things that customers say and do, and she started posting quotes on her blog of said happenings*. Well, it caught on and then Neil Gaiman discovered it and started posting links to her blog, and eventually a publisher offered to publish a book of all the crazy nonsense customers spew. And voila! Here we are.

So this here is a collection of  “weird things customers say in bookstores”, some of which come directly from Jen’s experience and some from other people who sent their own quotes or experiences to her. I understand I have the American edition (I think the UK edition is Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, which makes me wonder yet again why publishers think Americans are idiots when it comes to book titles - we know that a “bookshop” is a “bookstore”) and it may or may not have different quotes than the UK edition, because they reached out to US booksellers in particular for quotes and stuff.

ANYWAYS, this book is SO PERFECT for you if you’ve ever worked with books (I imagine there are similar ridiculous occurences in libraries). I worked in a bookstore for a little over a year when I was 18, and it was the BEST. I definitely had a few similar situations as some in this book, but some are so completely bizarre I almost can’t believe they happened. I chuckled here and there and it was a quick read, since it’s basically a bunch of short quotes and tidbits. Here are some that were particularly amusing…

“Customer: My kids are just climbing your bookshelves. That’s ok, isn’t it? They won’t topple over, will they?” - *sigh* What an annoying parent.

“Customer: Where are your fictional novels?” - Oh you poor soul.

“Customer: Do you have a copy of Atonement? But not the film cover, please. Keira Knightley’s neck makes me want to punch things.” - I totally understand, dude.

“Customer: I just don’t like my Kindle. I like real books. They are like cozy blankets to me.“ - Cozy blankets, indeed.

So yeah, if you’re looking for a short book to make you laugh and feel all warm and fuzzy about books and bookstores, read this. I bought my own copy, to browse through at random and because I get all sentimental and whatnot about missing Waldenbooks.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

* Jen Campbell’s blog is pretty fun, so I suggest you check it out. Also, she has another book coming out – More Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops and the release date is April 18th of this year, though that might just be in the UK, I’m not sure. Either way, I’ll probably buy it when it’s available.

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