Cobwebs from a Library Corner

Who says old books are just dust and silence? John Kendrick Bangs, the manic mind behind Puck magazine, fills these pages with mischief, wordplay, and a kind of gleeful absurdity that feels almost illegal in polite literature. Part one offers 26 poems that range from the silly to the surprisingly tender, while part two delivers 31 stories where ghosts get sassier than your local barista, philosophers debate with household objects, and logic itself gets thrown out the window. Bangs was America's premier humorist during the golden age of magazine comedy, and this collection captures exactly why readers a century ago couldn't put him down. The humor here isn't mean or sharp; it's the kind that sneaks up on you, makes you grin, and then sits somewhere in your chest like a small, warm ember. If you've ever loved a book that felt like finding a secret door in a library, this is that door.