No Help for That | Jackie Clark

So, I’ve also added the blog for A Book of Ages by Eric Hanson to my Google Reader recently.  I’m writing about it now because I just caught up on my reader reading.  Ideally, I’d like to do daily blog reading but for some reason I prefer to let things stack up a bit before I get on with it.

I think I probably came across mention of this book on HTMLGiant, which I am moderately sheepish about admitting.  But they do continually to prove themselves to be in the know of many neat literary things, and I for one appreciate that.

I am unfamiliar with Eric Hanson but think this book seems really neat, and is in fact “the perfect gift,” as it bills itself to be.   The book is “a witty and ironic collection of moments from famous lives- triumphs, failures, revealing anecdotes, odd incidents, crossed paths, reinventions, great partnerships, changes of heart and changes of mind- organized by year of age.”  For instance, did you know that on June 16, James Joyce fell in love with his future wife.  The day came to be known as “Bloomsday” and is the day that Joyce’s Uylsses takes place on.  It also happens to be the day that Syliva Plath and Ted Hughes were married. Hanson goes on to tell us that “they had known each other since February, when she met him at a party in Cambridge. When they embraced she kissed him and bit his cheek hard enough to draw blood.”

I want information like this waiting for me in my reader.  Neat, no?