Books

I'm currently reading two very whimsical and pretty downright hilarious books. The first is a bit newer than the second - "Book for Bad Boys and Girls", by Mark Twain. A friend of mine lent it to me, and I'm really enjoying it. Twain didn't actually write a book with that title; it's a collection of speeches, letters, stories, and excerpts from novels that speak to a wide range of topics pertinent to bad (or good) little people. Mark Twain really wasn't a fan of "being good" in the traditional sense. The book is full of little gems like "It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected", and "Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it". He was also staunchly opposed to the idea that bad people receive bad rewards (or "get what's coming to them"), and good people always get good things. There are more than a couple stories in the book that illustrate that. One in particular wasn't all that funny; it was pretty sad, actually. But, I suppose it reflected the truth of things. That's why I like Mark Twain so much; he isn't an idealist, he's a realist, and approaches things for the most part with the eyes of a child. Anyway, I'm really enjoying the book, currently on the "What Becomes of Bad Children" section. :) If you'd like a good, fun, yet educational read, this is it!

The second is just as whimsical and frank, yet a bit older in it's writing: "Tales from the Decameron". It was originally written between the years 1348 and 1353, by Boccaccio. The particular edition I have was printed in 1948 by Pocket Books, Inc. (a friend of mine picked it up at a thrift store for me) and, according to the introduction by Herbert Alexander, is based upon an anonymous rendering first published in 1741 and subsequently reprenited in 1804, 1822, and 1825. It appeared in Bohn's Library in 1872, edited by W.K. Kelly, and was once again revised in 1896 for Gibbings and Company by S.W. Orson. The book opens with a description of the Bubonic Plague and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who fled from Plague ridden Florence for a villa outside of Naples. To pass the time, each member of the group tells one story for every one of the tens nights spent at the villa. Thus, the rest of the book is a collection of 100 "novellas" divided into ten nights. I'm currenly only on the second night, but all the stories have been great so far. They range from witty to somewhat coarse to tender. In the editor's introduction, he summarizes the range of the passages by saying that the "scope and sweep of the collection are actually as broad as mankind."

Also, because it was printed in the 40s, the smell of the book makes it that much more enjoyable to read. :)