The Thin Red Line

Chas Newkey-Burden’s Great Email Disasters is a UK trade paperback book about e-mails that have come embarrassingly to light, leaving their senders to look like real schmucks.   While reading titillating e-mails is fun I suppose,  the fact that I really didn’t Know who most any of these people Were detracted for the experience for me.    This one is mildly Recommended to folks in the UK.   (And maybe they can tell me what all the fuss was about

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Awhile back I was tagged with the Six Word Memoir meme and I wish at the time I had had this just recently release trade paperback from the editors of Smith Magazine.   Subtitled  "six word memoirs by writers famous and obscure", Not Quite What I Was Planning is a collection of over 1,000 stories, told six words at a time.  Some of the celebrity contributions were quite funny:  "Liars, hysterectomy didn’t improve sex life"– Joan Rivers while others seemed a bit odd: "Revenge is living well without you"– Joyce Carol Oates or merely lame:  "Brought it to a boil, often"– Mario Batali.

For the most part the obscure contributors were more clever:  "Without ideas intelligence couldn’t exist"–Ornette Coleman or witty:  "Aspiring lady pirate, disillusioned sells boat"– Diana White and sometimes even wise:  "Lived in moment until moment sucked".   And my favorite as a blogger:  "Blogging is easy.  Writing is hard"–Jennifer Shreve.

I doubt anyone will mistake this for great literature but it is a very amusing book,  the perfect thing to be kept in a bathroom or waiting room for those times when you want to read a bit but not get involved in a story that will keep you there.   Not Quite What I Was Planning   Recommended.

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Happy Friday!   Just a Short Take Today on a very funny book  that is sure to brighten your day.   Leo Cullum is a cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine and this 2003 collection of his dog cartoons is a real treat.   Cullum’s dogs engaged in very human conversations are both genuinely witty and laugh out loud funny.    Go ahead and click the cover image and request it from your library.   A guaranteed day brightener,  Highly Recommended to dog lovers and fans of witty cartooning.

LAST CHANCE!    The Chain Drop contest for 3,000 Entrecard credits ends at midnight Pacific time tonight.    Since this blog is actually hosted and time-stamps in Eastern time,   all entries timestamped before 3:01 am on March 1, 2009  will be counted.    The winner will be announced on Chain Drop next week.    All you have to do is leave a comment here with a few sentences about how you use social networking.     If you haven’t already, click  here and leave your comment before time runs out.

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