book. • Laugh With Leacock: Old But Gold

I am in the middle of reading Laugh With Leacock by Stephen Leacock, a Canadian professor, writer and humorist from the early 20th century. This book was published nearly a century ago but feels pretty modern and is easy to read. 

The book is a collection of his humorous essays and anecdotes (sometimes made up to emphasize on the silliness of the story). I like to read these short stories while having breakfast or sitting on the train as they are small joys in my day. They give me a couple of chuckles or at least make me smile a lot. 

I got this book for free actually, at a second hand bookshop a street away from my university. It's got that real "old book smell", you know what I'm talking about. It's those kind of rare gems you pick up you feel like you were destined to find it. 

Before I continue on reading this book, I'd like to share snippets of some of my favorite stories that will hopefully make you smile and maybe get you interested. 

The Laundry Problem (a funny description of the early laundry companies)

The general idea, of course, in any first class laundry, is to see that no shirt or collar ever comes back twice. If it should happen to do so, it is sent at once to the Final Destruction Department, who put gun cotton under it and blow it into six bits. It is then labelled "damaged" and sent home in a special conveyance with an attendant in the morning. 

The Great Detective (a satire on typical detective novels)

To the Great Detective's face there used to be added the old-time expedient of not allowing him to either to eat or drink. And when it was added that during this same period of about eight days the sleuth never slept, the reader could realize in what fine shape his brain would be for working out his "inexorable chain of logic". 

The Everlasting Angler (one of many fishing stories which jokes about men pretending to be real fishermen) 

"We had hardly let down our lines," says the fisherman, "when Tom got a perfect monster. That fish would have weighed five pounds, wouldn't it, Tom?"

"Easily," says Tom. 

[...] "Did you see him?" asks the young lady who is staying with them. This of course she has no right ot ask. It's not a fair question. Among people who go fishing it is ruled out. You may ask if a fish pulled hard, and how much it weighed but you must not ask whether anybody saw the fish.

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