“A World of Curiosities” by John Oldale 
c.2012, Plume $16.00 / $17.00 Canada 300 pages
“The Not-So-Nude Ride of Lady Godiva” by David Haviland c.2012, Tarcher / Penguin $14.95 / $16.00 Canada 336 pages
Your noggin is plumb full.
You’ve got appointments crammed there, as well as directions, grocery lists, kids’ schedules, weekend plans, and to-do’s.
Your head is your calendar but it’s also full of useless things: your junior high locker combination, a jingle from 1980, a recipe for sky-high-calorie brownies, great-grandma’s phone number, and the name of every pet you ever had. In order.
So why not try to replace the needless noggin-info with something you can actually use to impress your friends, to wile away the time or to win a bar bet? Why not put “A World of Curiosities” by John Oldale and “The Not-So-Nude Ride of Lady Godiva” by David Haviland on your shelf?
So life is a little packed, and it’s all you can do to keep things straight most days. But just think: it could be worse. Refreshments could be made with cow urine (from India). Your kids could be Saligoman (“dirty brats,” a name for urchins in Rwanda), or you could’ve been born in Swaziland, where you would’ve been a “nonperson” until you were 3 months old.
Speaking of “nonpersons,” you’ve also got to remember appointments for that mid-sized dog-like creature (and be glad it’s not a Tasmanian devil). Rejoice, while you’re at it, that you don’t have a farting gorilla (Rwanda) or a fat-tailed sheep (Syria). Be happy Fido is no unicorn (originally from Pakistan).
And then there’s work: some days, it’s practically like World War I (which was not the first World War, according to Churchill). You’d swear that your cubicle-mate descends from Genghis Khan (16 million men do). Working with him is like being in a minefield (be prepared to escape one of those!) and you’re really glad Prohibition is over (although public drunkenness rates went up then).
Maybe you need a vacation. Maybe you should go north (Canadians are the most-liked people on Earth). Maybe you should move to Ghana (where they custom-make coffins). But before you go, check your suitcase for surprises. Roger Mortimer’s wife and Lady Raleigh could explain why…
Admit it: Sometimes novels are good but there are times when you want to read something that won’t make you think too hard. Enter “The Not-So-Nude Ride of Lady Godiva” and “A World of Curiosities.”
Author David Haviland’s book is a little bit more in-depth than many of this type. Still, each of the chapters are short enough to read in 10 minutes or less and interesting enough to make you want to read more on the topic at-hand.
Browsing author John Oldale’s offering is exactly what you’ll want to do when you pick it up. His book takes you on a world-wide look at history, customs and quirks in other countries, and since the bits are bite-sized, you can customize your read-time.
I love things like this for summertime and I’m pretty sure you will too. Even if your noggin is already packed with nuggets like these, “The Not-So-Nude Ride of Lady Godiva” and “A World of Curiosities” are both books to wrap your brain around.
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Her self-syndicated book reviews appear in more than 260 newspapers.
