A Tour of My Bookshelves, Part 2 of 33

Confession: I didn't want to go to Mango's today, but I did anyway. For exactly five minutes. What is the value of obeying the letter, but not the spirit, of a promise?

Reading:

• "My Brother Eli" by Joseph Epstein
  
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
  

Writing:

• "Ferian Fetlock Catches a Cold"

Revising:

• "The Revenant"

Future Projects:

• Dairhenien's Library - Development
  
• Floorcraft - First rewrite of 1-5, first draft of 6-8
• Ferian Fetlock - "Ferian Fetlock Takes a Wife."
  
• "Motley" - Expansion
• "Fireworks and Earthworks" - 5% into first draft
  
• Untitled School Mistress Story

Unpublished Stories/Status (in chronological order of completion of first draft)

• "Pictures of the Old Port" - 5th Draft, Unsubmitted
• "What Price Stamps" - 3rd Draft, Submitted to The American Drivel Review, July 30th, 2008
  
• "The Frost Fugling" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Black Pudding" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Cora and the Sea" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Motley" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Leaves and Sunsets" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "A Happy Ending" - 1st Draft, Unsubmitted
• "The Revenant" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "Illuminated" - 3rd Draft, Unsubmitted
  
• "A Cup of Coffee" / "Morning Tea" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to Tea: A Magazine, July 29th, 2008
• "Ferian Fetlock Cures a Horse" - 2nd Draft, Unsubmitted
• "Hattie Donnelly's Favorite Doll" - 2nd Draft, Submitted to 24 Hour Short Story Contest, July 27th, 2008

The previous entry in this series can be found here.

I continue the tour of my bookshelves with the remainder of my P.G. Wodehouse collection. As you can see, it occupies the right third of this shelf. Following the Wodehouse novels and short stories, you can see another couple of volumes related to those, one of which offers quotations from various Wodehouse works on varied themes, and another which explores the character and relations between Wodehouse's various sagas, many of which interconnected.

From Wodehouse, I move on to other books of humor. Dave Barry, of course, has to be in there, as does the Onion, America: The Book, and I Am America (And So Can You!). These are all classic, of course, and should be read by everyone.

Also note the Mark Twain, one of the funniest humorists of any century, plus... you guessed it... more P.G. Wodehouse! These are some of the paperbacks I bought before I knew that the hardcover collection existed, and I can't bear to get rid of them--at least not until I have their entire contents in hardcover. As one of them includes short stories collected from dozens of volumes, they won't be leaving my shelves any time soon.

I also have a couple of the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guides, which were funny at first, but then just got old. I also have some scripts from Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served?, two excellent British comedies of bygone years.

At the far right is A Treasury of Humor and Toastmaster Handbook. I do not recommend this book to anyone. It features the least amusing anecdotes that I have ever heard in my life. Seriously. It's one of the few books that I have seriously considered getting rid of, but I kept it just because you never know when a really bad anecdote might be just the thing you need.

Lying in "recently purchased but unable to file" position on top of the others is the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle. My faithful readers, assuming there are such beings, will remember when I read through the latter two volumes of this trilogy at just about the time I started this blog. They are extremely funny, if you can read through an Irish accent and don't mind seeing the word "cunt" in print.

If you do, I guess I just lost a faithful reader. Dammit.

My final note is on 1066 and All That. It is a parody of British history, written as if by someone who is trying to recall the British history he learned in school, but has confused and forgotten. The only important date in British history, of course, being 1066.

Honestly, I learned a lot about British history by not getting the jokes, and caring enough to look up the references. I have carried this tradition through to my viewing of The Daily Show. I don't get my news from Jon Stewart. He just inspires me to care about it.

Publication Status:

• Submitted: 5
  
• Accepted: 1
• Rejected: 1
• Pending: 3