I've read a lot of books about libraries but this one might be my favorite! There are libraries here with collections older than the Vatican, ones really 'hidden' in that there is no actual address and you need permission (and directions) to visit, and one that is mobile, yes, as many are, but this one is on a car transformed into something that looks like a tank and is a 'weapon of mass instruction'! (p.47) When the familiar, oh-so-well-known red phone boxes of the UK became, well, unneeded in this era of cell phones, they were threatened with extinction, until someone had the bright idea to make them into small libraries (mobile service was being cut at about this time, too). Some have been made into tea shops, art galleries and so on, but the majority are now small, neighborhood libraries! And there's a little free library at the south pole. Right next to the marker indicating that location! There are several research facilities here, and this is to serve the folks there ... and is put out only as weather allows. :-) There are lots more, too. Hidden Libraries: the World's Most Unusual Book Depositories, by DC Helmuh is a book I've read twice already, and will browse through one more time before it is returned.

It was the subtitle of The Upstairs Delicatessen that caught my eye ... :on Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating & Eating while Reading. (!) The author (Dwight Garner) loves to eat and to read and this memoir reflects just that. The notes that must have been made to include so many books and the meals and food that they contained boggles the mind (there are notes and permissions at the end). It is divided by meals, as well as a chapter on Shopping and even Napping! I quite enjoyed this but will warn others that there is a section on, um, 'other' things that can be done with food (not sure whether I was appalled or amused) and one much too detailed description of what happens when you cut off the head of a chicken. (Although, maybe, if you don't already know, this will be of interest). And yes, it did make me hungry, and yes, I often read while I eat! (With apologies to my mother, who did raise me better). ;-)

Curiosities of Literature: a Feast for Book Lovers, by John Sutherland lived up to it's name ... curious selections indeed! Who wrote the first western? I'll bet it's not who you might think it is! Did you know JM Barrie came up with a now popular name for girls? What did various presidents read? There's a section on farts (really!), from both characters in books and authors. There are books with their own action figures, or other odd things (think Yorick and a skull for your desk). A different sort of read, for sure.

Reading Hermit With Dog