(no subject)

[esmenet]

 Why don't I live in a world where I can just Google "Miscellaneous Interesting Shit About Japan" and there will be a website or book that is, in fact, full of miscellaneous interesting shit about Japan? Or Germany? Or written Chinese?

I mean, I know for a fact that Bill Bryson has written at least two books of Miscellaneous Interesting Shit About The English Language. There should be keywords for this crap, people. There should be something that everyone tags their Miscellaneous Interesting Shit with, so we can all find it whenever we go "You know, I really need to know something weird and maybe kind of cool about X. For my novel/my presentation/my thesis/because I fucking feel like it."

So! Does anyone know any good books of Miscellaneous Interesting Shit? Or websites? Or just some they happen to have lying around? I swear, you guys, I just want to know more.


Miscellaneous Interesting Shit I recently found out:

In Germany, you can't buy your burial plot, only rent it. 

Tsukemogami. I so, so badly want to write a story with these in it. I don't even care what.

Comments

[metisket.livejournal.com]

XD Random facts: it's so true, there needs to be some kind of list. But you have asked for book recommendations! WAH HA HA, I HAVE THOSE.

(Hah, I read The Mother Tongue. Was it not made of win? :D Yay, Bill Bryson.)

Books with random Japanese facts that I know of:

Mishima's Sword by Christopher Ross
Dave Barry Does Japan by Dave Barry (interesting because it was written in, I think, the early '90s. Pre-bubble burst, pre-Kobe earthquake, pre-sarin gas attack.)
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (the last story)
Kickboxing Geishas by Veronica Chambers (the writing style is spastic, but there are a TON of fun facts)
Underground by Haruki Murakami (in which he interviewed a bunch of random people about the sarin gas attack, and they told him about the gas attack and their lives and how unimpressed they were with the government/kids today/old folks today/whoever. :D Much funnier than I expected.)
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, manga series, story by Eiji Otsuka, art by Housui Yamazaki (Eiji does not believe in pulling punches. WHOA.)
Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey (gotta say, I wish his Gundam-obsessed son had written the book instead.)

...possibly that's enough for now. XD

As for Germany, I can only think of one fun fact, courtesy of my German housemate: apparently Harry Potter saved Carlsen Verlag, the German publisher. Until Harry Potter, they were just a tiny place in Hamburg that published comics and manga and children's books, and they were always on the brink of going under. Then some employee read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and decided it looked pretty good. They beat all the bigger publishers to it.

AND THEN THEY WERE RICH. :D

I feel like that burial rental thing is also true in Mexico. Ray Bradbury had an intensely creepy story about that in The October Country. Yes. I remember the nightmares resulting from the story better than the actual story.

...Aaaand, I fail you completely on Chinese writing. FAIL.

/random. Hope that was helpful. Or at least mildly entertaining. ^_^

[ojuzu.livejournal.com]

Those books all look really interesting! YOU ARE AMAZING. ♥