Book-A-Day #107 (10/31): The Rejection Collection edited by Matthew Diffee

A collection of cartoons (mostly five apiece) from about thirty New Yorker cartoonists -- but these are all cartoons rejected by The New Yorker. Each cartoonist also filled out a two-page form about him- or herself, which is also entertaining (I didn't know so many cartoonists were afraid of bears).

I laughed out loud more at this book than at any collection of cartoons I can remember, so, by that metric, it's possibly the strongest book of cartoons I've ever seen. (Maybe that's the problem, since I've always suspected New Yorker cartoons aren't meant to make you laugh out loud -- just to give a wry smile, or marvel at the cartoonist's sophistication and wordplay.)

The cartoon on the cover, by the way, is one of the worst ones in the book (for my taste).

The list of cartoonists included is nearly a New Yorker "who's who" -- Roz Chast isn't here, nor is Bruce Eric Kaplan, but pretty much all of the other big names still alive are. All in all, I liked it -- and it was the rare case of a book I didn't know about in advance, but just saw on a shelf, picked it up, and bought it. (I have lists like you wouldn't believe, and I usually know what's going to be published.)

Previously on Book-A-Day:
Chicken With Plums
(My recent massive lists of links to previous Book-A-Day posts has led Blogger to suspect me of being a "spam blog." While I have protested my innocence -- and will continue to do so! -- I also figured that the massive list was probably not all that useful. So I'll trim it down to just linking the previous book, and anyone who cares can follow the trail backwards.)

Edit, 11/2/06 at 10:02 AM EST: I've taken the suggestion of the person below whose name has a character that I can't find on my keyboard, and so here is...
The Fabulous Book-A-Day Index!