National Tell A Joke Day

No seriously. This is no joke.

Or, it is, but the day is real and it's not... oh for crying out loud. You know what I mean.

I'm a pretty funny guy in writing (that's why I have a blog) but I'm not the type that just comes up with jokes off the top of my head. So I'm not going to try to come up with my own joke for today... no, I'm going to leave that to the experts.

I recently read an article on Newslite (which is the best news source EVER) that was about researchers who discovered the worlds most funny joke. Now, I'm sure if you did this study again and polled a different 36,000 people, you would get different results. There's no scientific way to determine the funniest joke ever. Still, it's a pretty good list.

My favorite is actually number 14. It goes like this...

A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named 'Amal.' The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him Juan'. Years later; Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, ''But they are twins. If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal.''  

Knee slapper that one. I laughed out loud.

Most of these jokes aren't dirty, and they're all pretty funny. The link is here, and I encourage you to go check it out today, and tell a joke to someone you love. Or, if it's a really bad pun, someone you hate.

Either way, have fun and I'll see you next time!

Book Lovers Day

I guess there's some controversy over which day of the year is Book Lovers Day. Some sources say it's today, August 9th, while others seem to think it's the first Sunday in November.

I really don't care one way or another. Maybe I'll do another post November 3rd too. I just know that I love books and wanted to celebrate them.

I decided that on Book Lovers Day, I should visit a local institution known as Kazoo Books. Here's their website - http://www.kazoobooks.com.

This place is awesome. It's one of those rare gems of a bookstore that carries new and used books, all mashed up together. Parking is around back of the store front off a street called Book Street. It's situated in a couple of converted houses, and just looks really cool inside and out.

Kazoo Books!

Walking up to the store, you instantly get the sense that this is going to be small, cramped and full of books inside. Once you step inside, you quickly realize... you were right, and it's one of the best places you've ever been. 

Pretty much every wall looks like this.

I browsed around for a bit waiting for my buddy Joey to show up. We've been friends for ages and ages (more years than I care to admit, really) and we share a love for the written word and old book smell. With both of us owning Kindles now, we don't get out to enough book stores, and boy am I glad we decided to go to this one. 

Every detail of the place jumps out at you and screams, "quaint little bookstore where you can find anything." The decorating, the way the books sit on the shelves, the signs, the cat that wanders around (I'm told there's a bigger cat at their second location...) It's all you've ever wanted in a small bookstore.

This whole little room off to the side on the main floor is painted with cherry blossoms. They wrap around the corner.

The few section signs there are, are printed on an inkjet printer and hung from the ceiling with mismatched chains. 

Told you. Bigger cat.

These little nooks with comfy chairs are situated throughout the store, giving people ample room to just pull of book of the shelf, sit down and read it. How cool is that?

I chatted with the owner, Gloria Tiller, for a little while about the store. She told me all about the author signings (there's one tomorrow for Jim C. Hines and his new book Libriomancer) and the book clubs they do, as well as the writers groups (maybe I should join one of those...) and huge verity of books they get in. 

The books all around the store are situated in a random kind of organized way. Sometimes you get whole huge sections...

The children's section!

...and other times you get little ones so specific your brain doesn't quite know what to do with them.

The small Tales and Legends section...

... not to be confused with Children's Fairy Tales and Legends.

One of the book club tables. There's a kitchen with a sink and a stove right next to it, so people can brew tea and coffee.

The atmosphere of the place just never stops. After going upstairs and finding even more extensive shelves filled to bursting with books, I walked across an outdoor deck (Gloria told me they do poetry readings out there sometimes) and discovered their poetry, old books, and antique books. 

As a student of literature, this was my favorite room. There were chairs to sit in here too, and a radio on a side table buzzing out NPR at a volume loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to distract.

Joey and I wandered about for a bit, chatted with Gloria a bit more, and then it was time for her to close up shop, so we decided to get out of there. Not before one last look though...

I apologize for the scruffy appearance... I'm growing my beard back.

And I even bought a used book (new to me!) for $3.18. How awesome is that?

So thanks Gloria, for talking to me, and thanks for having such an awesome store. I'll be going back, as often as I can get away to do so.  

Viva la books!