Look at My Book!

Why not embellish your life by using books as accessories?

Here I am posing with an amusing book (which takes itself a bit too seriously) by James Lipton—yes that Lipton, the one who hosted Inside the Actor’s Studio. It’s titled An Exhaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition, More Than 1,000 Terms. Lipton considers it his “letter to the world.” Read it to learn what to call groups of various things, from aardvarks to yuppies. (There are no entries under “z.”) And yes, some of the collective nouns are real while others are fashioned by Lipton.

Now that I'm in the know, I suppose I'll have to call my mug decorated with a parade of eight identical partridges my “covey of partridges.” Or not.