8. No Monster No

It's week 17 and I have some catching up to do. Today in my previz class, Matt passed around a book he picked up on kickstarter. No Monster No is a cute story about a little girl who befriends the monster under her bed and teaches him how to fit in with her peers. The cool thing about this is that the author of the book illustrated it with fabric. It sounds really weird and unusual because it is. I've never seen a book produced in this way and it works so well that I'm surprised that no one has done it before. If you have children and see this book, BUY IT.

7. Gulp

Mary Roach is one of my favorite authors. We somehow share the same morbid and entirely inappropriate, yet moderately tasteful sense of humor. Her books always keep me in stitches and Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal was no exception. Mary opens the book with the importance of saliva and the olfactory senses and ends with the process of defecation. While I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as Stiff or Bonk, it is definitely worth reading.

On another side note, I am thoroughly impressed with the amount of technology that the Clinton-Macomb Public Library springs for. To begin, the digital catalogue will tell you exactly where a book is located (or, at least, where it should be located) and there is a service that will text you that information, along with the book's call number. The catalogue itself is so much more useful than many of the ones I have used in the past and can almost always decypher the book or subject matter I am looking for.

The library also has self checkout machines so that you don't have to interact with a librarian. Just set your books on the pad (I assume that they use some sort of RFID tags), scan your card, and tap OK. The process takes 10 seconds and you're on your way. If every library had the money to adopt this system I would visit them much more frequently.

6. There's a Hair in my Dirt

My friend Connie recommended this book while I was doing research for my previz class. Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side wrote There's a Worm in my Dirt in the style of a children's book. It's definitely not. The book does paint a fairly accurate description of wildlife in a wildly entertaining and memorable story. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor and the book may soon be finding a place on my shelf.

On a side note, I just switched to Chrome. Firefox was being completely reasonable and using all 8 gigs of my RAM. The bastard.