The Gong List A summer's worth of the things we do instead of the things we should be doing.

V and I are currently sitting in the center of the third row of the Sovereign Performing Arts Center waiting for David Sedaris to speak wonderous things to us.

I would like to suggest that #44 on the list become:

"Throw a dinner party with Andrew WK as the guest of honor."



He can wear as many trucker caps as he wants just so long as he brings dessert.

for those gongbloggers who missed shady mapledom.

#43 - Buy $30 worth of books at a Library Book Sale.

The Shock of the New - Robert Hughes c. 1980

Complete Home Workshop Cyclopedia - Popular Science c. 1945

The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien c. 1969 reprint (because, oddly, we didn't own a copy)

The Martian Child - David Gerrold c. 2002 movie tie-in

Ramona the Pest - Beverly Cleary c.1975 reprint

Ramona Forever - Beverly Cleary c. 1984 reprint

We Were The Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates c. 1997

Hitler Victorious: 11 Stories of the German Victory in WWII - Gregory Benford ed. c. 1986

Anne of Windy Polars - Lucy Maude Montgomery c. 1975 reprint (AWESOME cover of Anne looking like she was a college student in the mid-70's.)

Anne of the Island - Lucy Maude Montgomery c. 1994 reprint

Threshold - Caitlin R Kiernan c. 2001

Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings - Katherine S. Newman c. 2004

Sins of the Day - No Author (although it's probably from the Catholic church) c. 1959

The Truth About Stone Hollow - Zilpha Keatley Snyder c. 1974

Miffy - Dick Bruna c. 1984 English reprint

Lost girls - Andrew Pyper c. 2001

The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt - Patricia MacLachlan c. 1988

The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex c. 2007

The Birthday Room - Kevin Henkes c. 1999

Alice's Adventures in Oxford - No Author or copyright (Souvenir Book)

Amazing Magical Jell-O Desserts - General Foods Corp c. 1977 (I got this one because it had oddly attractive desserts and it reminded me of my friend Hannah who collects Jell-O books.)

Marjorie's Busy Days - Carolyn Wells c. 1908 (First edition! A ridiculously sweet children's book.)

This I Believe - Edward R. Murrow c. 1954 (First edition! Awesome find that I'm incredibly excited by whose Title Page reads:

The personal philosophies of one hundred thoughtful men and women in all walks of life - twenty of whom are immortals in the history of ideas, eighty of whom are contemporaries of today.

Among the "contemporaries" are Darwin, Oscar Hammerstein, James Michener, Carl Sandburg, and Harry Truman.

Plus I got a VHS copy of William Wegman's The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold for $0.50.



I wish I could get Loki to act. It would solve some of all of our money woes.

#42. Boogie down to the Sun Ra Arkestra. A free concert on Saturday, July 24th, 6pm. 40th & Walnut on the lawn behind the library.