Yet another Friday Happy Hour, ripped from the pages of Mental Floss (Follow that blog, it’s great for trivia nerds). As always, questions are theirs, answers are mine.
1. Agatha Christie said she came up with most of her book plots while sitting in her bathtub, eating apples. Do you have a special place you go when you really need to concentrate? Where do you do your best work? Any old study tips you want to share?
It’s not a place I go to anymore, but when I lived in Salina, Kansas there was a spot at a park I used to love. Secluded table overlooking the Smoky Hill “river.” Used to go there frequently.
2. Congratulations! You’ve been hired as a consultant by the For Dummies people. You’ll be assigned to one book, on a topic you know a lot about. What new For Dummies book would you want to work on?
How to Avoid Pissing Me Off for Dummies (Subtitled: And you’re all dummies). It’s a niche market.
3. Whether it was intentional or not, what’s the strangest place you’ve ever slept?
I’m not much of a sleeper when it comes to strange places, so I’d have to say sleeping in a cave.
4. What’s on your summer reading list?
I’m currently reading The Orthodox Heretic by Peter Rollins, Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut, and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. I don’t normally read more than one book at a time, but this Rollins book is best read one chapter at a time (and they’re only a few pages), and the Vonnegut is a collection of short stories, so I’m doing one at a time there, too. The Girl who Played with Fire is up next once I finish those.