Got this from my friend Lisa over at Tie Me In Words.

What books are your comfort reading–the ones you slink back to in times of stress?
I like to read my girly manga when I’m super stressed. They’re quick, funny and I’m always guaranteed a happy ending (for the most part). My current favorites are Absolute Boyfriend and Chibi Vampire (Oh I am so a girl…)

What was your favorite book as a child, and why?
Harold and the Purple Crayon, because everything he drew came to life. Art has always been a part of me, but when I look back its this book that stands out as the one that helped me know this is what I wanted to do.

What was your favorite book as an adolescent, and why?
Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block. In the explosion of the new young adult genre, this one has sadly been left out. Its a collection of five books that contain all the things of which the “new” young adult genre consists. Fantasy, romance, coming of age, dealing with peer pressure, same sex relationships, wish fulfillment, and the list goes on and on. But because Block doesn’t bother adhering to our rules of reality, her book has gotten lost in the fray. I gave this book to all of my friends in high school to read, with the understanding that they had to write in the margins, underline passages and make commentary if they read it. My copy is much loved and has ink on almost every page. It’s probably my most treasured high school possession.

What is the most unread category of books gathering dust on your bookshelf–the books you’ve bought but just never get around to reading?
Zombie genre! And that’s really because my husband is interested in them and I’m not. The books I buy and don’t read have no collective genre. I started to list some examples but the amount of books I just haven’t gotten to yet is almost embarrassing. And yet I’ve almost doubled my 52 in 52 challenge.

What kind of books would you like to say you read, but never do?
If there’s a book I want to read, I’ll read it. There’s really little discretion. If a book sucks, I wont read it. Or I will and I’ll hate it. But no genre is safe from my eyes!

What’s the oddest book you’ve ever read?
Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar would have to be the oddest book I’ve read. It teaches philosophy by telling jokes. I wish I’d had it before I took the class in college, it may have been a more entertaining experience. I’d recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor and any slight appreciation of philosophy.

What book were you never able to get through,despite the recommendations of people you respect?
A book has to be pretty ass-tastic for me to not finish it. I never got through Dark Lover on the first three attempts. I think I’ve mentioned before that I threw it against a wall many times. Then about 6 months later I picked up the third book in the series, Lover Awakened, the best according to the author and many fans. Then I was hooked and eventually read the other books. I’m now a big fan of the vampire smut. (If you take issue with romance novels, I suggest you hit up Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and rethink your previous assumptions about the largest genre in the publishing industry.)

What’s the book it took you a couple of tries to get into, but was as good as promised once you finally made it?
See above. >.< To back up in time though, I would say Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. That’s right, when I got this book as a gift I absolutely refused to read it. I started it a few times, never getting past the first three chapters. Then one day I sat down and read more. Holy crap! It was so good! It’s now listed among my favorite books of all time.

What’s your favorite short story–or do you even have one?
Melissa Marr wrote a short story called Love Struck in the YA anthology Love is Hell. I read it before I picked up her novel Wicked Lovely and instantly fell in love with her writing style and her ability to make strong themes interesting enough to read about. Marr does a fantastic job of writing not just a great story, but she touches on things that are really important, while making it enjoyable at the same time. Love Struck was a great story, as is her Wicked Lovely series. If you haven’t read them yet, I strongly urge you to do so.

The desert island. Three books (and collected works don’t count. If you want the Lord of the Rings it’ll cost you all three slots). Go:

1. Ink Exchange – Melissa Marr’s second book in the Wicked Lovely series. If you haven’t read what I had to say about it back in April, go read it now. It’s all the way at the bottom of the post. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Melissa Marr even responded, saying I’d made her day. Well… she pretty much made mine too.
2. Lover Awakened – This is one of my favorite vampire smut books and if I only get three books to read forever this one is going in the mix. This book broke my heart, but it also has a fantastic resolution in the end. JR Ward has broken a lot of the romance rules in her series, and this one is a great example. It’s not exactly a happy ending… not at first anyway.
3. Plato and a Platypus – I’m going to go ahead and throw some humor in here, since I can’t just say Terry Pratchet’s entire Discworld series and I could never ever pick just one to show favoritism to. If I need a good laugh I’ll know where to find it, and I can philophize my predicament at the same time.

Citat: Groucho Marx

Strax före avgång på Arlanda hittade jag en bok som blev en av semesterns höjdpunkter: “Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar… – Understanding Philosophy through Jokes”. Citatet ovan av Groucho Marx fanns återgivet på baksidan av boken. Boken åstadkommer det som den utger sig för att göra. Den belyser filosofiska principer genom att återge och analysera “roliga historier”. Angreppssättet blir, i mina ögon, väldigt lyckat. Jag har länge själv reflekterat över djupa likheter mellan god “humor” och filosofi. Humor bygger ofta på den oväntade och häpnadsväckande reaktion man kan framkalla hos åhörarna genom att bryta mot förväntade regler. Detsamma gäller ofta god filosofi. Man ifrågasätter saker. Belyser saker ur oväntade och oprövade perspektiv. Både humor och filosofi vänder ofta upp-och-ner på förutfattade meningar och begrepp.

En sånt ganska typiskt “skämt” som jag spontant kommer att tänka på (men jag vet inte om det fanns med  i boken) är det här:

Det finns tre slags människor – De som kan räkna och de som inte kan räkna…

Sorry, is you want the punchline you’ll have to check out Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes.  It is a book by Thomas Wilson Cathcar and Daniel Martin Klein.  I was flopping through it in the book store yesterday an liked what I saw.

- Chalmer

For years I have been trying to find a good book about philosophy.  I have always found the ideas behind different philosophers and philosophical concepts to be very interesting and I’ve wanted to learn more.  The trouble is, most books on philosophy are written in such dull language that I couldn’t make it through the first chapter without falling asleep.

Therefore, when Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein’s book “Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar” caught my eye in a bookstore in Washington’s Reagan National Airport I just had to get it.  “Plato and a Platypus”, a New York Times Bestseller, is a book that is all about understanding philosophy through jokes.

I purchased the book in the airport, opened it up and started reading immediately.  I couldn’t put it down!  In fact, I had read through all 191 pages before my plane even took off (though I must add an aside to say that our plane sat on the runway for 4 hours due to bad weather…).

“Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar” is, in my opinion, a work of genius.  It goes through the history of philosophy from Metaphysics to Meta-Philosophy, stopping to joke about Logic, Epistemology, Ethics, Religion, Existentialism, Politics and Relativity on the way.  Cathcart and Klein do a great job of explaining different philosophies and philosophers in layman’s terms and use jokes (and good jokes at that!) to help them explain.

The duo break down Existentialism into a single statement:  “You haven’t lived until you think about death all the time,” and they use jokes to explain other difficult philosophical concepts.  I think it is quite obvious that I highly recommend this book.

And on an end note, here is my favorite joke in the book.  It is used to help explain Aristotle’s distinction between essential and accidental properties.  In the book, Cathcart and Klein write that According to Aristotle, “essential properties are those without which a thing wouldn’t be what it is, and accidental properties are those that determine how a thing is, but not what it is (I. Metaphysics).”

“Why is an elephant big, gray, and wrinkled?”
“Because if he was small, white, and round, he’d be an asprin.” (Cathcart & Klein)

“A western anthropologist is told by a Voohooni that 2 + 2 = 5. The anthropologist asks him how he knows this. The tribesman says, “By counting, of course. First I tie two knots in a cord. Then I tie two knots in another cord. When I join the two cords together, I have five knots.”

Extracted from Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar… Understanding philosophy through jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein