These seem to all be books I just didn't want try to group with anything similar, mainly because those with a similar subject just didn't seem to match up ...

A search on the call number and subject heading for books similar to Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: an Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights brings up titles like the Guinness Book of World Records, list books of the biggest, or the fastest, and so forth. This book, by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins is unlike any of those. It is a gentle, quirky book about small, little (or even un-) known things such as the language of fans (the kind that fold up in your hand), the definition of pell-mell and pouf (talk about big hair!). The more I read, the more I enjoyed the 'delights' gathered here.

Lost Hollywood, by David Wallace is a nostalgic, reflective read. Wonderful descriptions of Hollywood during the new and 'golden' years, the people that populated it and the houses they built (or yachts they bought). Sad, too, though in that so many died young and the houses are gone. I know that change is inevitable, but for a beautiful house to be torn down for a mini-mall or fast food franchise just seems wrong! Look for Spencer Tracy waiting on soldiers at the Hollywood Canteen.

Ward Kimball was an artist with Disney (Bambi, Sleeping Beauty among many others), and one of my dad's friends. I remember Dad saying Mr. Kimball had a quirky sense of humor. One day something arrived in the mail. It was a copy of the book Art Afterpieces. Here are many of the most familiar of paintings (the Mona Lisa, Birth of Venice, etc.) but with an added, mmm, twist. This is a totally irreverent book and I do remember some people being offended by it, so consider yourself warned!

I never saw the daily comic strip for this, so I am very happy that they were gathered into a book titled Who Was That Monolith I Saw You With, by Michael Goodwin. Follow the Starship Enterprise on some adventures that were never included in the tv series (that's how old this is). (!) Somewhat dated now in the references to popular science fiction, it still makes me laugh each time I read it.

"Read at whim! Read at whim!" (Randall Jarrell)

Reading Hermit With Dog