You've stumbled upon the blog of Paul Malan. I love my family, I love to write, I love to ride my bikes, and I love to take pictures. Maybe someday I'll think of something clever or arresting to say right here.Over the years, I have developed a mild obsession for books. It’s not as if I spend hundreds of dollars at a time at the local Borders or Barnes and Noble but there is a steady trickle of Amazon boxes arriving at my desk, and I am rather picky about the books I have accumulated thus far.
I love the library for my children’s sake, but I hate borrowing and lending books for myself. Nearly all the books I have read in the past several years now sit on my bookcase—I feel driven to own a book, not just read it. Though they are substantially less expensive, I refuse to order second-hand books online; unless the used book is somehow meaningful, like the copy of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day I had growing up, or the well-worn Le Petit Prince my wife loved to read as a child, I am not interested in having its second-hand smudges, wrinkles, and fingerprints in my collection.
Even if the book is mine, purchased new, I’m sensitive to its condition. I once spilled the tiniest bit of hot cocoa on a book I had been enjoying reading, and the slight wrinkling of the pages bothered me so much I couldn’t even finish reading it until I replaced it with a fresh copy. Another book, ordered for me by our office secretary, was never even opened when I discovered it on my desk with my full name scribbled directly on the cover with green magic marker. It is hidden still in a dark corner bookshelf at my office, and ever will be, with my name assaulting its cover. (How many book covers have to be destroyed before we discover the ever-useful Post-It Note? Seriously.)
Schott’s Original Miscellany is one of the books that make me really love books. You might have to pick it up to really understand the appeal, but there is something captivating about a book that holds so much information you never expected to be interesting. The list of “Q” words that don’t contain a “U” might someday come in handy for Scrabble, and you never really know when you might need a list of NATO countries, but the most entertaining tidbits so far have been random collections of facts. The list of translated Cockney slang had me laughing so hard my cheeks ached, and the section called, “Proverbially, you can’t…” (have it both ways, teach an old dog new tricks, etc.) makes me want to shake Ben Schott’s hand.
This is the perfect coffee table book, or, if you share my genetic predisposition to sit and read bare-bottomed on the porcelain throne, the perfect book for your bathroom.
(By the way, that picture of Kate being amazed by this book was not at all easy to get. Be impressed, will you?)
Love that picture of Kate!