Readers Digest

March 28, 2006 6:31 AM

You are what you eat? How about eating Gingerbread House on the Rock, Neverwhere Soup, Coraline-au-prune, and having ambitions to eat the Compleat Works of Neil Gaiman. I agree with his taste in books, but I thought people grew out of that paper-eating phase by their teenage years (except when meals are prepared by a Sous-Chef with an Inkjet).
posted by Silki (19 comments total)

Wow.

That's really something.
posted by empath at 7:37 AM on March 28, 2006

That's a strange strange blog. The mix of project and incidental details of office life is peculiar. The choice of project suggests goal-directed pica. But at least he has LanguageHat in the blogroll.
posted by OmieWise at 7:57 AM on March 28, 2006

Cool, I've never heard of pica before. Very interesting.
posted by empath at 8:03 AM on March 28, 2006

It's a fascinating blog, and really well written. Thanks for the link Silki. But am I the only person to think it might be fiction?
posted by featherboa at 8:13 AM on March 28, 2006

Pica, perhaps, but specifically bibliophagia. I feel sorry for the guy when he finally gets around to Sandman-- all those colored inks can't be good for you. But what can I say? I think I'm inspired. If anybody needs me, I'll be eating the collected works of Shakespeare, starting with a Hamlet-and-cheese on rye.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:21 AM on March 28, 2006

I wasn't really suggesting pica, I've never heard of it being a goal-directed activity.

FOB: At least he isn't eating Aristotle's Treatise on Comedy! /Name of the Rose
posted by OmieWise at 8:32 AM on March 28, 2006

Wow, that is truly odd. Especially the business-like, matter-of-factness about the whole thing.

I used to read Neil Gaiman's blog pretty regularly, and I always got the impression that he loves his fans, but is also a little afraid of them. Now I understand why.

Something tells me Danielle Steele never has stuff like this happen to her.
posted by Gamblor at 8:39 AM on March 28, 2006

OmieWise. lol. that's exactly what i was thinking.

and then I started thinking about Christian Slater naked and it wrecked it for me.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:39 AM on March 28, 2006

That guy better be careful. He might get bookworms.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 9:03 AM on March 28, 2006

Yea really how is this not fucking him all up inside, thats a lot of fiber, i would be worried about impaction, but i guess if he is cooking it all and soaking it in things, maybe it wont matter, but i am pretty sure that the human digestion system was not meant to swallow that much cellulose.
posted by stilgar at 12:14 PM on March 28, 2006

Without knowing how much other food he's mixing with the paper it's hard to tell what proportion of his diet is cellulose. Looking at the early days of his blog it sounds like he was overdoing it.

When I'm ready for a mid life crisis, I'll have to consider consuming Terry Pratchett's oeuvre. Not for very long, of course.
posted by Silki at 1:46 PM on March 28, 2006

When I was in elementary school, I ate an index card.
posted by danb at 1:51 PM on March 28, 2006

American Gods was a tasty Sammich.
posted by Skygazer at 2:18 PM on March 28, 2006

When I was in elementary school, I ate an index card.
posted by danb at 4:51 PM EST on March 28

I swallowed a marble when I was four.
posted by Skygazer at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2006

Speaking of which, I also stuck a small plastic toy bullet up my nose when I was 7. It never came back out. It's probably still up there lodged in my brain somewhere and one of these days I'm going to turn my head too quickly or nod to yes to a question and I'm going to accidentally lobotomize myself.
posted by Skygazer at 2:24 PM on March 28, 2006

From the House on the Rock entry:

It's like my ma used to say: "It'll look much worse where it's going."

Won't we all?

Awesome.
posted by gurple at 3:00 PM on March 28, 2006

I also stuck a small plastic toy bullet up my nose when I was 7. It never came back out.

Appallingly, the X-rays are available to anyone on Google:



Call your congressman! Medical records are a private affair!
posted by sonofsamiam at 3:08 PM on March 28, 2006

D'oh!
posted by Skygazer at 4:15 PM on March 28, 2006

Oh, this is brilliant dadaism. Surreal meets Office Space. Genius.
posted by dejah420 at 10:04 PM on March 28, 2006