Texas Pages

While the calendar gives us an excuse, let's stay lighthearted, sort of, with a review of ""The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes" (Vintage Books, 224 pages. $12.95), by the Editors of McSweeney's:

This 12th annual Kiriyama Prize, given for "literature that contributes to greater understanding of and among the peoples and nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia," goes to:

I'm afraid I have no great tales about independent booksellers purchasing Borders, the new Google/Virgin Mars colony, or even the the Swiss spaghetti harvest.

But I do have some tidbits from the advance copy of a real book, "Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes," by Jim Holt. Norton won't release the book until July, but, as even an amateur humor scholar knows -- timing is everything. So I'm talking about it today.

"Stop Me If You've Heard This" is a delightful little treatise that probably owes its existence to the success of Harry G. Frankfurt's "On Bull----." Similarly, it takes a serious look at a lighthearted topic, and turns up some fascinating trivia, such as:

To celebrate National Poetry Month, I'll be posting a new line of poetry every morning on Texas Pages for a little feature called "Morning Verse." The lines will span from ancient haiku to slam poetry and include a variety of voices from Shakespeare to Allen Ginsberg to Lucille Clifton. Every Friday, we'll feature lines from our very own poets in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Feel free to tell us what you think, send us a poem inspired by the line or recommend your own favorite lines. Dallas poets, especially, please send me the best lines from your poems for the Friday feature.

Without further ado, here is the first line:

I was about to have my hair combed into the new music everyone was singing.

From this week's literary banquet:
* Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam, $24.95). Previously unpublished writings from the late, great author.
* Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, by Julie Andrews (Hyperion, $26.95). Chronicles the early life and career of the stage and cinema star.
* A Remarkable Mother, by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster, $22.95). A biography of Miz Lillian, the former president's mother.
* The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom, by Martin Amis (Knopf, $24). A series of chronologically ordered essays about the terrorist attacks of 2001.
* Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf, $25). Author's second collection of short stories, following her Pulitzer Prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake.
* Wild Nights!: Stories about the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway, by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco, $24.95). Ms. Oates writes fictional death scenes for five canonical American writers, adopting elements of their signature styles.