Curing Hiccups with Small Fires

I love to read.  I love love love to read.  I like to keep what I read as well.  I do reread my books every few years and I like to have them as a list of my accomplishments.  That might be a bit odd.  I’m not sure.   Most of my books are still in the States, in my parent’s basement.  They are so heavy that I will only be bringing over a few after each trip.  I already have a probably too long list of what will be making the trip back with me in April. 

I can guarantee though, that I’ve read every book that is waiting to cross the pond!  I tend to buy as I go.  When I get down to my last unread book I’ll take a gander at the books sitting in my Amazon wish list and decide which 2 to 4 I’d like to read next.  When those are done the cycle continues.  I can never understand why people keep buying when they have piles and piles of unread books.  That mentality might come from my space issues though.  I lived for 6 years (not counting the 2 I was traveling) in tiny apartments, if it was going to take up space it had to get used, and sooner than later. 

Now I’m at the point where I’ve got a three bedroom house, just not a lot of book shelf space yet.  So I do have storage, but now there are two avid readers in the house buying books.  I have a feeling that an IKEA bookcase may be in our near future.  I sort of feel like I’m starting over with my book collection, but also that this is just a continuance of the collection that I have in the States.  

The book I wanted to talk about today is called Curing Hiccups with Small Fires by Karl Shaw.  Before I moved here I was doing research about the UK and was pretty excited when I stumbled on this book at Strand Books, a massive used bookstore in New York City.  This book saw me through my last days in NY, the train to my parents in MD and my first bit of time in the UK.  It’s not that its long, I was just only reading a bit at a time.  In fact, this is a perfect book for 2 or 3 minute reads  as each story is only a page or two long.

I love history and I adore the funny bits of history.  This book was right up my alley.  The book talks about different people from all different background and time periods that were on the eccentric side.  I liked the way that Karl Shaw seemed a bit empathetic with some of the eccentric characters he wrote about.  The book is divided into different types of people, travelers, political and etc.  I would definitely recommend reading this if you love history and like to laugh about it a bit.

Are there any books that you would suggest I read?