The Atheist's Bible
"It is hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning."
(Bill Watterson)
"All religions are the same: religion is basically guilt with different holidays."
(Cathy Ladman)
If those carry any appeal for you, you'll find them in The Atheist's Bible, edited by Joan Konner. This is "an illustrious collection of irreverent thoughts: quips, quotes, and questions from a distringuished assortment of geniuses and jokers."
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."
(Can you guess who?)
Hours of entertainment; basis for an evening's quiz; missing-word round at a party; fodder for thought in the loo; there is definitely something here for everyone - well, nearly everyone!
Motor racing
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Jackie Stewart: World Driving Champion -
Life at the Limit / Graham Hill -
The Chequered Flag: An Account of the Great Races & Drivers of Today -
Fast and Furious: The Story of the World CHampionship Drivers -
The Le Mans Story by Georges Fraichard -
WOrld SPorts Car Championship -
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines by WIlbur SHaw
We have a huge array of books both on line and in our shop covering all aspects of motorsport, including Formula One, Indy & stock cars, rally, touring, moto GP, motocross, and of course biographies of the great and famous (Fangio, Senna, Mansell, Prost, and Lauder to name but a few). We've probably even got something on lawnmower racing if that is what thrills you.
If you are one of the many who miss those edge-of-seat days, why not come into the shop and browse through our "car" section. We have a really great selection of both old & new and are always happy to bring books out from the back (our storeroom) for you to look at.
Plunge into Philosophy
The Bathroom Professor: Philosophy on the Go
(Don't Just Sit There, Learn Something!)
By Joey Green
If you're looking for a quick. painless way to impress other people with a knowledge of philosophy that you don't possess, then take this little book with you every time you go to the loo and make good use of all those idle moments you spend just sitting there!
It isn't just a joke (although it's written to entertain) since you will learn something about the world's great philosophers and schools of thought. After reading this book, you will be able to fake your way through erudite dinner-table conversations but you will also develop a deeper understanding of why philosophy is such an endlessly fascinating field of study.
You can't really beat the combination of simplicity, brevity and wit which educates and and enlightens at the same time.
GetaWay
Gordon Thomson Woodroofe
Getaway
The RAF listed 10,000 airmen prisoners of war in WW2, out of whom only 30 successfully escaped from German prison camps. Gordon Woodroofe is the only New Zealander named.
He was born in Te Aroha and left to train as a pilot in the RNZAF at Taieri and Wigram. On his sixth operational trip from England he ditched in the North Sea and was captured.
GeTaWay is Woodroofe's story of his escape from a Nazi prison camp and his tortuous journey back to England during World War Two. The odyssey involved adventures by train, bicycle, boat, wagon and on foot over the course of three years.
Not many of the successful 'escapees' have written books which makes this definitely worth reading, a real New Zealand hero.
Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary
by Justin Green (new deluxe 2009 edition)
I know nothing at all about this book but its appearance is very impressive and it seems as if it could be interesting. I shall have to cheat by quoting extensively from the introduction written by Art Spiegelman.
He bills it as a comic book turned into an intimate, secular confession booth! He says Justin Green has done for confessional autobiographical comics what the Bronte sisters did for Gothic romance and what Tolkien did for sword-and-sorcery. Spiegelman credits him with inventing a new genre.
I don't know how many confessional autobiographical comics you've read but if you're already a fan, you could read this one for comparison purposes; if you're like me and have never heard of the genre, you could give it a read for the purpose of widening your horizons.
Art Spiegelman does mention that the art work and the content may take some getting used to (but surely nothing worth its weight comes without effort).
Brothers Grimm
Vintage Grimm: The Complete Fairy Tales
Translated, introduced & annotated by Jack Zipes
Wolves, grandmothers, dwarfs, foxes, geese, kings, stepmothers, bears, murder, mayhem, evil, violence, cruelty, humour and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
This edition contains all 279 stories by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, stories which have fascinated both children and adults for generations. An informative introduction along with annotations make this more than just a volume of fairy tales and myths. All the famous favourites are here but there are dozens more that we've never heard of and that makes for a book with wide appeal which provides entertainment for the whole family.
Rapunzel, yes; Riffraff, no; Hansel & Gretel, yes; Iron Hans, no; The Raven, yes; The Turnip, no; there are a lot more tales that you probably don't know than those that you do.
classics
Did you study Greek or Latin at school? Have your language skills got a bit rusty? Would you like a gentle re-entry to the classics?
A Loeb Classical Library Reader
published by Harvard University Press
This lovely little book contains a collection of Greek & Latin texts from 33 of the major classical authors. The format offers parallel texts so you have the Greek or Latin on the left-hand page and the English translation on the right. It is the ideal way to brush up your skills and jog your schoolboy/girl memory. Even if you didn't do Greek or Latin at school, it is still a nice introduction to Greco-Roman culture.
The compact volume includes poetry, philosophy, history, satire and fiction. It gives a glimpse of the arts, science and thought of antiquity. The selection spans 12 centuries and includes treasures such as Odysseus, Zeus, Socrates, Cicero, Livy, Pliny, and Homer.
Grab a copy to pop in your bag so you can relish classical poetry and comedy and enjoy the lives of the real and imaginary people who populate ancient history.
Who or what is this?
She can deposit 30 or 40 () parasites in the human bloodstream at a single bite.
She is one of the greatest killers of all time.
She is a nuisance, a pain and an angel of death.
One person dies of () every twelve seconds.
Mosquito by Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio
This is an excellent book about the mosquito and will appeal to a broad audience. It is clear, aiuthoritative and right to the point on the mosquito's importance to humanity. As well as being an interesting read, it is a model of popular science writing. Professor Spielman and Michael D'Antonio thoroughly cover the history of the mosquito without being deadly (unlike the beastie they are studying). You will be fascinated and appalled by this book. You may even turn into an entomologist by the end of it!
"If you would see all of Nature gathered up at one point, in all her loveliness, and her skill, and her deadliness, and her sex, where would you find a more exquisite symbol than the mosquito?"
Havelock Ellis
