furnishing our break room

Yesterday, some friends and I went to a book giveaway at the central library on campus. Sadly, it was mostly old business and psychology books, and at first we wandered the tables glumly. Then: we realised! We have a break room on our floor! So far there are only old copies of the New York Review. They have hilarious personals ads in the back, but, even so, our reading material is sadly lacking. What a great opportunity to find the most ridiculous books we possibly can for our reading pleasure during lunch breaks!

Our break room is now the proud owner of:

1. Drunken Comportment: A Social Explanation, by Craig MacAndrew and Robert B. Edgerton. This should be helpful for us students, becoming acquainted with such a foreign concept.

2. Economic Systems: Analysis and Comparison, by Vaclav Holesovsky.
This actually looks slightly useful for anyone studying economic history. For everyone else, perhaps it will drive us back to our normal work more highly motivated than ever before?

3. Distinguished Young Americans. I'm not sure when this was written, but some sort of indicator should be the presence of Martin Luther King, Jr. One black man who "eschews radicalism" (in the book's words). One white woman who sings. Isn't it nice to see?

4. Power Atlas of India. This fascinating book could grace any coffee table. It contains a number of graphs detailing the distribution of different types of power across India. My friend Ben picked this up, and was asked soon after by the librarian supervising the giveaway: "Excuse me, would you mind telling me what you're studying? I just didn't think anybody would pick this up."
I have no idea why.

5. Русская Расовая Теория до 1917 Года. Apparently this means 'Russian Racial Theory Until 1917'. We can't read it because it's all in Russian but the script is so pretty, and there are many pictures of bearded men!

6. A Network of Dissolving Threads, by Richard von Sturmer. We chose this because we all agreed that that is how we feel about our theses.

7. Ten Weeks with Chinese Bandits, by Harvey J. Howard, M.D. I like this because it sounds racy and exciting, and also because I was intrigued by the inclusion of M.D. after his name. I wonder: why need someone be a M.D. to be kidnapped by Chinese bandits? Are Chinese bandits so discerning that they only kidnap highly qualified professionals?