Are robots cool? Yeah, robots are cool.

Are you curious, or do you want to become an expert at trivia? Look Now: The World in Facts, Stats, and Graphics is a book filled with awesome information. You probably won't ever use this information for work, or school or whatever, but that's what makes it fun to look through!

Chinese is the most spoken language, followed by Spanish, then English, Arabic, and Hindi. (Pages 72 & 73)

A chart on pages 96 & 97 shows where a country lies on a grid where how rich it is runs across the bottom and how happy it is runs up the side. They even color code the big dots to show what continent the countries are from. European countries have the biggest range of happiness and income. North America has some poor and very happy countries, too!

Interested in how citizens are being watched? Pages 134-135 will tell you that! Apparently London has 7,431 cameras watching, while Sydney, AU; Paris, FR; and San Fransisco, USA have a combined total of 493 cameras monitoring the public.

"Japan expects to have 1 million robots by 2025."

How are those for fun facts?

"Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar lived comfortably in a pickle jar."

So I chose it because the title seemed interesting, and I was trying to decide what could be interesting about this book.  What do I do to find out more about it? How about open the book!  The above quote is the first line of the story.

The writing in this story is really funny.  It starts out that Mrs. Vinegar breaks their glass pickle jar home and Mr. Vinegar says that they will go out into the world and make their fortune and "have another fine pickle jar".  Okay, so the plot is lagging, but the way Stephen Gammel writes his story is funny.  Check this last quote:

" 'Leave now?' Mrs. Vinegar replied. 'But what of our belongings?' 

Mr. Vinegar waved his hands. 'Nothing to fret about. I shall take out door and the key as well.  All will be safe upon our return.' "

I will keep that in mind: if I want to keep my belongings safe, I'll remove my door and take it with me as I run errands!

Boating Squirrels

I want to tell you about The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. 

This was a book written by Beatrix Potter and some would consider the book a classic.  A lot of people think that classic books are boring, but the illustrations are so cute and there isn't much text at all!

Check this out, this is what a whole page of text looks like:

"They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts.  Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail for as sail."

What happens when you Google "Google"?

I found out something interesting today.  If you go to Google (the online search engine- that will be important later), anyway, if you go to Google and type into the search bar "do a barrel roll" the Google search results will actually rotate!  It was pretty funny to see.  Go check it out now, if you want.  But open another tab!  We don't want to lose you yet (you're a pretty cool person).

So why am I bringing up this search engine trick?  It could just be because I have a short attention span, but that's not completely true this time.  This time I want to write about The Google Book. WAIT.  Don't leave- the book is not about the search engine.  The Google Book was written by V.C. Vickers and it was published in 1979, which was waaay before Google (the search engine) was created.

 Why should you be interested?  The book is full of verses, but they're not boring like all the poetry that people try to trick you into reading.  Try this and see if you're interested:

"THE FLABBYTOES

But mark!! What is that sound I hear?

Someone in agony I fear! –

Oh no!! It is old Flabbytoes,

You can't mistake his funny nose."

Okay, you didn't really care for that?  Well, there's some pretty rad pictures, too.

1980's and 90's throwback

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is like one of the best books ever.  It was originally published in 1989 so you may have read before, or had it read to you, but it’s totally worth another look.  I mean, just read it out loud - it is pretty fun.
(Hey now, that guy over there may look at you but it will definitely be in admiration and jealousy.  He wishes that he had a sweet quote to read aloud.)  Seriously, try it now.

“Skit skat skoodle doot.
Flip flop flee.
Everybody running to the coconut tree.
Mamas and papas
and uncles and aunts
hug their little dears,
then dust their pants.”

Pretty awesome, right? Yeah, I knew it.

Gators are Aweful

Alligators are Awful (And They Have Terrible Manners, Too) by David McPhail

So, some of the Graduate Assistants in the Goldstein Library are from northern parts of the country, and we don’t know a thing about Alligators.  We were so relieved when we found this book because it told us everything we needed to know to cope with Gators in Florida.  Check out this gem: “They sit in front of you at the movies and never take off their hats.” I mean, yeah I’m jealous that gators look good in top hats, but come on.  I want to watch the movie, not some shadow.

Goldstein previews

Goldstein previews are books that are unique to the Goldstein Library collection that are available to check out.

C D B! by William Steig
Text messaging short hand is unique to cell phones, right?  Not really. The Goldstein Library has a book featuring text short hand so intense that even the best texters will be clueless, and to top it off, it was written in 1968.  Don’t believe us? Come check it out.

“I M A U-M B-N.”  means “I am a human being.”
“U R N N-M-L.”  means “You are an animal.” 

The book is called “C D B!“.  Can you guess what it’s short for? Hint: look at the cover art!