A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew A. Henson

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION:

FIRST PANEL: (two explorers, one black, one white, both with parkas and mustaches)

Black Explorer (Matt Henson): Like I said Peary, here it is.

White Explorer (Robert Peary): At last! It's mine!

SECOND PANEL: (we now see that Peary is strapped to a dog sled)

Peary: Now get me out of this sled so that I may be the FIRST to set foot on the NORTH POLE!!

THIRD PANEL:

Henson: Well, I already did, before we drove you here.

Peary: Oh, Henson, you know what I mean.

FOURTH PANEL: (Henson has a serious look on his face)

Heson: Yes, I see

FIFTH PANEL:

Henson: Man, it sure feels nice, being up here on the North Pole.

Peary: Henson let me out of this sled.

SIXTH PANEL:

Henson: Gonna do some squats.

Peary: HENSON

Henson: On the North Pole. Feels good.

SEVENTH PANEL

Henson: Phew! All those squats, they're making me tired! Who's ready to go home?

EIGHTH PANEL: (the dog sled races away. Henson is grinning ear to ear. Peary looks as mad as hell. )] - Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton



"It is always interesting to note that at the very same time that Canadian immigration was insisting black people couldn't handle the cold, a black man was the first non-native person to set foot on the North Pole. This is such a stupid country sometimes." -Kate Beaton

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National Geographic Profile of Matthew A. Henson

My Double Life by Sarah Bernhardt

"My life, which I had at first expected to be very short, now seemed likely to be very very long; and it gave me great joy to think of the infernal displeasure that would cause my enemies." - Sarah Bernhardt



Sarah Bernhardt (22/23 October 1844 — 26 March 1923) was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah". - Wikipedia



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Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome

"A humorous account of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford." -  Wikipedia

"You can never rouse Harris. There is no poetry about Harris- no wild yearning for the unattainable. Harris never "weeps, he knows not why." If Harris's eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester over his chop.

If you were to stand at night by the sea-shore with Harris, and say:

"Hark! do you not hear? Is it but the mermaids singing deep below the waving waters; or sad spirits, chanting dirges for white corpses held by seaweed?" Harris would take you by the arm, and say:

"I know what it is, old man; you've got a chill. Now you come along with me. I know a place round the corner here, where you can get a drop of the finest Scotch whisky you ever tasted- put you right in less than no time."

Harris always does know a place round the corner where you can get something brilliant in the drinking line. I believe that if you met Harris up in Paradise (supposing such a thing likely), he would immediately greet you with:

"So glad you've come, old fellow; I've found a nice place round the corner here, where you can get some really first-class nectar." - Three Men In A Boat

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 Audio book

Collections of Nothing by William Davies King

 The University of Chicago Press Free ebook of the Month

"What makes this book, bred of a midlife crisis, extraordinary is the way King weaves his autobiography into the account of his collection, deftly demonstrating that the two stories are essentially one.… His hard-won self-awareness gives his disclosures an intensity that will likely resonate with all readers, even those whose collections of nothing contain nothing at all."—New Yorker

"King’s book is short but dense, encompassing in 163 pages an autobiography, a self-psychoanalysis, an apologia, and an initial finding aid to his collection. He enjoys wordplay: puns, chiasmus, unexpected and creative repetition. His sentences can act like linguistic traps, making you linger to puzzle them out. They give the sense of someone trapped by his own hyper-creativity" - bookslut.com review

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(free only until January 31st. 2012)