Book picks similar to
The Lure of the Limerick by William S. Baring-Gould
poetry
humor
limericks
humour
Baseball, Boys, and Bad Words
Andy Andrews - 2013
All the usual ingredients were there—well-worn gloves, freshly cut grass, and new uniforms. But the addition of a coach who was “new to the area” is what made this season truly unforgettable for young Andy.Baseball fans and both current and former Little Leaguers will love the funny story, the age-old baseball wisdom quoted from some of the game’s greatest players, and the vintage baseball photography.
The Complete Saki
Saki - 1976
The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language. Here for the first time, are the collected writings of Saki--including all of his short stories ("Reginald", "Reginald in Russia", "The Chronicles of Clovis", "Beasts and Super-Beasts" "The Toys of Peace", and "The Square Egg"), his three novels (THE UNBEARABLE BASSINGTON, WHEN WILLIAM CAME and THE WESTMINSTER ALICE), and three plays (THE DEATHTRAP, KARL-LUDWIG'S WINDOW and THE WATCHED POT. You are invited to meet once again Clovis, Reginald, the Unbearable Bassington, and the other memorable characters etched so superbly by the pen of H.H. Munro. "In all literature, he was the first to employ successfully a wildly outrageous premise in order to make a serious point. I love that. And today the best of his stories are still better than the best of just about every other writer around."--Roald Dahl. Introduction by Noel Coward.(less)
The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History
Michael A. Stusser - 2007
Based on his column in the acclaimed magazine "mental_floss," this collection of conversations is incredibly funny, but each interview is also based on serious research, so in addition to laughing, readers actually learn real history. "The Dead Guy Interviews" includes discussions with: Alexander the Great Beethoven Napol?on Bonaparte Buddha Julius Caesar Caligula George Washington Carver Catherine the Great Winston Churchill Cleopatra Confucius Crazy Horse Salvador Dal? Charles Darwin Emily Dickinson Albert Einstein Benjamin Franklin Sigmund Freud Genghis Khan Vincent van Gogh Henry VIII J. Edgar Hoover Harry Houdini Thomas Jefferson Joan of Arc Robert Johnson Frida Kahlo Leonardo da Vinci Abraham Lincoln Mao Tse-tung Karl Marx Michelangelo Montezuma Mozart Nostradamus Edgar Allan Poe William Shakespeare Sun Tzu Mae West Oscar Wilde
Peake's Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings
Mervyn Peake - 1978
For the aficionado and for the first-time reader, this selection of his less well-known works offers a treasure trove. It includes a wealth of short stories, poems, nonsense verse and drawings - all of them adding new perspectives on this prolific and astonishingly original writer.
Bauhaus
Magdalena Droste - 2006
With utopian ideals for the future, the school developed apioneering fusion of fine art, craftsmanship, and technologyto be applied across painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre, and installation.As much an intense personal community as a publicly minded collective, the Bauhaus was first founded byWalter Gropius (1883 1969), and countedJosef and Anni Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer, Gunta Stolzl, Marianne BrandtandLudwig Mies van der Roheamong its members. Between its three successive locations in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, the school fosteredcharistmatic and creative exchangebetween teachers and students, all varied in their artistic styles and preferences, but united in their idealism and their interest in a total work of art across different practices and media.This book celebrates the adventurous innovation of the Bauhaus movement, both as atrailblazer in the development of modernism, and as aparadigm of art education, where an all-encompassing freedom of creative expression and cutting-edge ideas led to functional and beautiful creations. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Architecture Series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts and plans) "
The Book of Forgotten Authors
Christopher Fowler - 2017
It makes people think you're dead. So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves.We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada, or Lionel Davidson. Whether male or female, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner, no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten.These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favorites, including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world. This is a book about books and their authors. It is for book lovers and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening, and entertaining guide.
Cruel Shoes
Steve Martin - 1977
Since he has always written his own material, books are a natural medium for Steve's comic genius. And his extravagant wit shines brightly indeed in this rollicking collection of short fabulous pieces.
Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany
Ben Schott - 2003
The eponymous foods, famous last meals, and perfect martini proportions revealed in the bestselling Schott's Original Miscellany were only the tip of the iceberg: Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany is a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles from the culinary world. From food history to cooking terms, cocktail recipes to dining etiquette, grace before meals to after-dinner toasts-this olla podrida offers everything for the wine drinker, gastronome, and glutton. And Ben Schott's brilliant juxtaposition of delectable tidbits makes this new miscellany so hard to put down, it may even make you late for dinner. Ben Schott is a photographer, designer, and Miscellanist. He lives in Highgate, London. Also available: Schott's Original Miscellany hc 1-58234-349-7 $14.95 Praise for Schott's Original Miscellany "It's the ultimate book for browsing...as hilarious as it is addictive."-Newsweek "Ben Schott's utterly indispensable Schott's Original Miscellany is...scarily habit-forming, so caveat emptor!"-Vanity Fair "It is so pleasant just to have this book near."-Los Angeles Times "If nothing else, bathroom reading just got a lot smarter."-Daily Candy "Somehow Mr. Schott turns a collection of trivia into a window on the world that is hilarious, puzzling, and inspiring."- Wall Street Journal "An irresistible, irreplaceable, inexhaustible delight."-Baltimore Sun "Schott's Original Miscellany is a charmingly addictive curiosity cabinet...the first really great bathroom book of the 21st century."-Entertainment Weekly
Well-Read Women: Portraits of Fiction's Most Beloved Heroines
Samantha Hahn - 2013
Anna Karenina, Clarissa Dalloway, Daisy Buchanan...each seems to live on the page through celebrated artist Samantha Hahn's evocative portraits and hand-lettered quotations, with the pairing of art and text capturing all the spirit of the character as she was originally written. The book itself evokes vintage grace re-imagined for contemporary taste, with a cloth spine silk-screened in a graphic pattern, debossed cover, and pages that turn with the tactile satisfaction of watercolour paper. In the hand and in the reading, here is a new classic for the book lover's library.
Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes
Isaac Asimov - 1992
Here are more than 700 of Isaac Asimov's favorite jokes, cleverest limericks and funniest stories.
Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff
Calvin Trillin - 2011
For at least forty years, Calvin Trillin has committed blatant acts of funniness all over the place—in The New Yorker, in one-man off-Broadway shows, in his “deadline poetry” for The Nation, in comic novels like Tepper Isn’t Going Out, in books chronicling his adventures as a happy eater, and in the column USA Today called “simply the funniest regular column in journalism.”Now Trillin selects the best of his funny stuff and organizes it into topics like high finance (“My long-term investment strategy has been criticized as being entirely too dependent on Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes”) and the literary life (“The average shelf life of a book is somewhere between milk and yogurt.”)In Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin, the author deals with such subjects as the horrors of witnessing a voodoo economics ceremony and the mystery of how his mother managed for thirty years to feed her family nothing but leftovers (“We have a team of anthropologists in there now looking for the original meal”) and the true story behind the Shoe Bomber: “The one terrorist in England with a sense of humor, a man known as Khalid the Droll, had said to the cell, ‘I bet I can get them all to take off their shoes in airports.’ ” He remembers Sarah Palin with a poem called “On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok” and John Edwards with one called “Yes, I Know He’s a Mill Worker’s Son, but There’s Hollywood in That Hair.” In this, the definitive collection of his humor, Calvin Trillin is prescient, insightful, and invariably hilarious.
Every Tongue Got to Confess
Zora Neale Hurston - 2001
Together, this collection of nearly 500 folktales weaves a vibrant tapestry that celebrates African American life in the rural South and represents a major part of Zora Neale Hurston's literary legacy.
Exercises in Style
Raymond Queneau - 1947
However, this anecdote is told ninety-nine more times, each in a radically different style, as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and with many more permutations. This virtuoso set of variations is a linguistic rust-remover, and a guide to literary forms.
ABC of Reading
Ezra Pound - 1934
With characteristic vigor and iconoclasm, Pound illustrates his precepts with exhibits meticulously chosen from the classics, and the concluding “Treatise on Meter” provides an illuminating essay for anyone aspiring to read and write poetry. The ABC of Reading emphasizes Pound's ability to discover neglected and unknown genius, distinguish originals from imitations, and open new avenues in literature for our time.