Unfinished Books: weird animals edition

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End of the Megafauna:
The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals

written by Ross D E MacPhee and illustrated be Peter Schouten

I read a short blurb about this book in Smithsonian which suggested the writing was dull and sloggish which images were CANNOT MISS. I agree about the images. I disagree about the text.

I devoured every image and caption in the book, enjoying paragraphs here and there of the main text. I enjoyed those so much (and learned so much) that I then went to the beginning and started reading from page one. Then someone hid the book and then it was returned to the library. But I stand by my assertion that this is a fascinating read, wonderfully illustrated. There is more to the world, friend, than dinosaurs.

The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough:
Early Writings and Cartoons by Dr. Seuss

edited by Richard Marschall

After reading a Dr Seuss biography this summer, I wanted to supplement with some of the good doctor's ACTUAL work, rather than chatter about it. So I made my way through one and two and most of this volume as well.

It consists of his cartooning and humor writing during and after college (and even a bit of the advertising). I read most of the book and enjoyed it. The only reason I'm not finishing it is because it's a library book and I'm prioritizing other library books before school starts. If I owned it, it would get finished. (And maybe I should own it---it's pretty cheap.)

I don't know that his stuff is as great as the best of his contemporaries (I think first of James Thurber and Robert Benchley), but it's solid. If you like humor-writing and cartooning from the first half of the previous century, it's worth checking out.