About Howling Frog Books

Hello and welcome to Howling Frog Books!  I read a lot of books, and here is where I tell you about them.  You'll find that I will read most things, but I particularly like classic and world literature, history, a certain amount of SF/fantasy, and weird old books in general.

I love comments, so please do me the honor of arguing with me or just saying hello.  I don't accept many requests for reviews, but I do accept some; feel free to ask.

The name of my blog is taken from one of my all-time favorite books, Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror.  The three friends -- Walter Galt, Winston Bongo, and Rat -- go to a scruffy old mall to look for a guru, and find a bookstore:

“Welcome to Howling Frog — Books of the Weird,” the fat bald guy said. “I am Howling Frog, the owner, general manager, clerk, stock boy, and janitor — and this is my good friend and spiritual guide, the Honorable Lama Lumpo Smythe-Finkel.”

The guy's name was Howling Frog! Never in all my life had I heard such a neat name....

“Books of the Weird is the bookstore in which you can find those books you never dreamed of finding, books you never knew existed. I have books about unheard-of places, seldom visited and practically unknown. I have books dealing with miraculous events and strange occurrences. I have books on obscure topics, such as knot-worship in fifteenth-century Switzerland, and how to tell a person’s character by the shapes of his ears..."

I recommend that you read many Pinkwater books at the first opportunity.

The motto of Howling Frog Books -- "To be literate is to possess the cow of plenty" -- is taken from the motto of the Madras Library Association (MALA).  S. R. Ranganathan helped to found MALA and was its first president.  Ranganathan was not only the father of librarianship in India, but a great world influence; he developed the "Five Laws of Library Science" and invented faceted cataloging.  I think it's pretty much the best motto ever.  Pictured with the motto is Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning and wisdom, music, and the arts. This image was on the cover of the original edition of The Five Laws of Library Science.