"One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life. People who don't read are trapped in a mine shaft, even if they think the sun is shining. Most New Yorkers wouldn't travel to Minnesota if a bright star shone in the west and hosts of angels were handing out plane tickets, but they might read a book about Minnesota and thereby form some interesting and useful impression of us. This is the benefit of literacy. Life is lonely; it is less so if one reads." G. Keiller

Book Reviews

Dec/Jan 08

The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap - Ed. Matthew Diffee
Voyage of the Basset - James Christensen
Escape - Carolyn Jessop
Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited - Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss - Claire Nouvian
Bizarre Books - Russell Ash and Brian Lake
The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs

Nov. 07

One Red Paperclip - Kyle MacDonald
See You in a Hundred Years - Logan Ward
American Hair Metal - Steven Blush
Some Danger Involved - Will Thomas
Michael Palin - Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years
Money Changes Everything - Edited by Jenny Offill and Elissa Shappell
Pontoon - Garrison Keiller

October 07

The Know-It-All and Esquire Presents, What it Feels Like - A.J. Jacobs
My Life in Orange (Tim Guest) and Bhagwan, the God that Failed (Hugh Milne)
The Surfboard - Art, Style, Stoke - Ben Marcus
Sex, Lies and Handwriting - Michelle Dresbold
Where We Lived - Jack Larkin
Ancient Micronesia and the Lost City of Nan Madol - David Hatcher Childress

Sept. 07

Island of the Colorblind - Oliver Sacks
London Then and Now - Diane Bursten
London Sight Unseen - Snowdon
Making Money - Terry Pratchett
The Children of the Lamp Series - PB Kerr
The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
Evil Genius - Catherine Jinks

August 07

Fame Junkies - The Hidden Truth Behind America's Favorite Addiction - Jake Halpern
Teun Hocks
Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May Series
Practically Perfect in Every Way - Jennifer Niesslein
Caroline Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries

June/July '07

Underworld Sites of Concealment - Peter Seidel and Manfred Sack
Ghostly Ruins - America's Forgotten Architecture - Harry Skrdla
Access All Areas - Ninjalicious
There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell - Laurie Notaro
Roller Girl - Totally True Tales from the Track - Melissa - "Melicious" Joulwan
Who ARE You People? Shari Caudron
One Perfect Day - The Selling of the American Wedding - Rebecca Mead
The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan - Wendy McClure
Sunken Cities, Sacred Cenotes and Golden Sharks - Bill Belleville
Beneath the Metropolis - The Secret Life of Cities - Alex Marshall

May '07

Mountain Man Dance Moves - The McSweeney's Book of Lists
Toilets of the World - Morna Gregory and Sian James
The Commitment - Dan Savage
A Thief of Time - Tony Hillerman

Feb-April 07

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder - Lawrence Wescheler
A Perfect Mess - Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman
American Prospects - Joel Sternfeld
I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion - Paul Budnitz
The League of Extraordinary Gentleman - Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Reaching Climax And Other Towns Along the American Highway - Gary Gladstone
Nature Girl (Karl Hiaasen) and The Big Bamboo (Tim Dorsey)
To Air is Human - Björn Töroque
They Call Me Naughty Lola - Personal Ads from the London Review of Books
The Rejection Collection - edt. Matthew Diffee
Graceland - An Interactive Pop-Up tour - Chuck Murphy with a forward by Priscilla Presley
Jpod - Douglas Coupland and Deep Storm - Lincoln Child

LOST Valentines

Jan 07

Witness to Nuremberg - Richard Sonnenfeldt
Space - Japanese Design Solutions for Compact Living - Michael Freeman
Your Disgusting Head and Giraffes? Giraffes! The Haggis-on-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance
Mindless Eating - Dr. Brian Wansink
Iron Lake - William Kent Krueger
Still Life with Crows - Lincoln Child and Michael Preston

Nov/Dec 06

Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things - Berkeley Breathed
Part Asian - 100% Hapa - Portraits by Kip Fulbeck Forward by Sean Lennon
Half-Moon Investigations - Eoin Colfer
Offbeat Museums - Saul Rubin
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
Cheap Laffs - The Art of the Novelty Item - Mark Newgarden

Oct. 06

Neil Gaiman and Peter Straub at the WI Book Festival
Secret Girl - Molly Bruce Jacobs
Crackpot - The Obsessions of John Waters
Beyond Mammoth Cave- James Borden and Roger Brucker
Tattoo Blues - Michael McClelland
The Lighthouse, A Certain Justice, Murder Room and Original Sin - P.D. James

Sept. 06

The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
Paint it Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking - Voltaire

Aug. 06

In Praise of Slowness: How the Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed - Carl Honorè
Fargo Rock City and Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story - Chuck Klosterman
Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante - ayun halliday
A Working Stiff's Manifesto - Iain Levison

July 06

Nërd Girl Rocks Paradise City - Anne Thomas Soffee
The Loch - Steve Alten
The Beard and Moustache Championships - The First Official Book (with entry form!)
The Big Bento Box of Ununesless Japanese Inventions - Kenji Kawakami
Slow Fat Triathlete - Jayne Williams
The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason

June 06

Dairy Queen - Catherine Murdock
Inside Havana - Chronicle Books
Early Bird: A Memoir of Early Retirement - Sidney Rothman
Childfree and Loving It! - Nicki DeFago
Different Dances - Shel Silverstein
Anybody Out There? - Marian Keyes

May 06

Postville - A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America - Stephen Bloom
The Celebration Chronicles - Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disney’s New Town - Andrew Ross
Utopia - Lincoln Child
Hungry Planet - What the World Eats - Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio
Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

April 06

Never Threaten to Eat Your Co-Workers: Best of Blogs - Edited by Alan Graham and Bonnie Burton
Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels - Hella Winston
Bar Mitzvah Disco - Robert Bennett, Jules Shell and Nick Kroll with a foreword by The Village People
Monsieur Pamplemousse Hits the Headlines - Michael Bond

March 06

Gullibles Travels - Cash Peters
Why Do Men Have Nipples? Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, M.D.
Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel - Scott Adams
Post Secret - Frank Warren
Our Smallest Towns - Big Falls, Blue Eye, Bonanza & Beyond - by Dennis Kitchen, intro by Garrison Keillor
A Collaboration with Nature - Andy Goldsworthy
Cadillac Beach and Triggerfish Twist - Tim Dorsey

Feb. 06

Home Work - Hand Built Shelters - Lloyd Kahn
Crap Cars - Richard Porter
A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
Museum of Bad Art

Jan. 06

The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman
Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland
The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd
Leaving the Saints - Martha Beck
Here Speeching American - Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras
Very Bad Poetry - The Petras Siblings

Dec. 05

Angry Little Girls by Lela Lee
Material World: A Global Family Portrait and Women in the Material World by Peter Menzel
Loretta Lux
Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects by Marthe LeVan  and The Jeweler's Directory of Decorative Finishes by Jinks McGrath
The Blackbird Papers by Ian Smith

Nov. 05

Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
Good Poems & Good Poems for Hard Times, Edited by Garrison Keiller
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, "Captain Charles Johnson"
Sleeping by the Mississippi - Alec Soth
Boring Postcards USA, Phaidon Press
Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit, Laura Penny

Oct. 05

Amy's Answering Machine, Amy Borkowsky
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, We Thought You Would Be Prettier, I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies I have Told), Autobiography of a Fat Bride, Laurie Notaro
Twilight, Gregory Crewdson
Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child
Archeology Magazine
Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer

Sept. 05

New York Underground by Julie Solis and Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York by L.B. Deyo
Fresh Fruits - Shoichi Aoki
Thud! Terry Pratchett
Cabinet of Curiosities, by Patrick Mauries
The Cabinet of Curiosities - Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke, Suze Orman

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