So Much to Read

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”—Samuel Johnson

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Literary Limericks

The Underminer
Mike Albo with Virginia Heffernan
“I wish I were you,” says your friend,
“You don’t pay attention to trends.
It must be nice not to care
About what you wear.”
The Underminer strikes again.

Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back
Norah Vincent
Being a man among men can be hard
In a monastery or in a bar
But she’s not a real guy
She’s a woman in disguise
And that’s something different by far.

Kyle’s Bed and Breakfast
Greg Fox
The guys share a house on the shore
Drama? Each new week brings more
But the point is the visuals
So the clothes are nearly invisible
It’s pecs, calves, and six-packs galore.

The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu
Allison Janse and Charles Gerba
We know washing hands can save lives
But paranoid is different from wise
Shaking hands with your elbow
Might be too far to go
Use your hands—just don’t rub your eyes.

Quirkyalone: A Manifesto for Uncompromising Romantics
Sasha Cagen
For some, dating causes a fear
If coupled, they can’t be as weird
You don’t need a lover
If you have yourself to discover
Why use a window when you have a mirror?

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home
David Shipley and Will Schwalbe
That e-mail could go far and wide
So be careful of what you’ve implied
It’s not rude to use these: !
But it is to say “Please”?
Before you hit “Send,” read this guide.

The Lost Language of Cranes
David Leavitt
Author of The Body of Jonah Boyd
His first novel: A young man comes out
You’ll cringe at the speeches he spouts
But Leavitt’s talent is plain
The surprise is the cranes:
They aren't birds he’s talking about.

The Inimitable Jeeves
P.G. Wodehouse
All Wooster wants is to play
But avoiding marriage and work takes all day
When he gets in a jam
Jeeves comes up with a plan
Who needs a wife when you’ve got a valet?

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Steve Martin
Author of Shopgirl
You’ll learn how a young magic whiz
Went from summer theater to big-time show biz
How a cerebral nut
Became known for “King Tut”
But you won’t learn who Steve Martin is.

Rebecca
Daphne DuMaurier
Evil is lurking around
With each twist the plot’s more tightly wound
Appearances are misleading
And this is great summer reading
Getting shivers will sure cool you down.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Mary Roach
Author of Stiff
As a hobby or as a vocation
Many’ve studied this preoccupation
Giggly Roach gets hands-on
Brings her husband along
And that’s just too much information.
A novel about sex research: The Inner Circle

How I Fell in Love with a Librarian and Lived to Tell about it
Rhett Ellis
The young preacher has mixed success
With the librarian he tries to impress
She’s quite an oddball
But love conquers all
And you can read this in an hour or less.

Replay
Ken Grimwood
From the eighties back to ‘63
A man is sent repeatedly
It’s charmingly dated
(A wrist calculator amazes)
And meant to be read ravenously.
More time travel: Time and Again, The Time Traveler's Wife

Songs Without Words
Ann Packer
Author of The Dive From Clausen's Pier
A phone call does not get returned
A friendship ends; bridges are burned
It’s two female friends
On that, this novel depends
With two men, it would be absurd.

“There was so much to read, for one thing, and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breathgiving air…I was rather literary in college—one year I wrote a series of very solemn and obvious editorials for the Yale News—and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the ‘well-rounded man.’ This isn’t just an epigram—life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby