Do We Own the World's Most Boring Books?

One thing you discover when you move is that you are a Collector, whether you intended to be one or not. Or at least, this has been my experience. Whenever I move I always find masses of notebooks, all with only a few pages used. I have a ridiculous amount of them and really, I don't write notes much. I also seem to collect packets of Panadol and twenty cent coins. It's odd. Thieu collects articles from newspapers and seeds from interesting trees he has come across on walks, stored in baby-food jars.

The other thing that Thieu and I have in large proportions is books. They're everywhere. And one thing that I've always suspected, but which has become clear to me as we pack up, is that we have a lot of extremely boring books. Take this random selection:



The 'Canals of England' and the 'Computers: Concepts and Uses' is Thieu's, but the Grammar Games one is mine. There are many, many more titles along similar lines, but the one I came across yesterday which I think deserves the prize for the most boring book in our collection is this one:



The worst bit is that these books are not in the 'throwing out' pile. Oh no. They are in the keeping pile. Because who knows when we might want to play some grammar games while finding out about the history of kerosene lamps?

German phrase of the day (this one was actually used by someone we know): Es ist ein kaka in das Schwimmbad.