Day 28 — Thursday Next + Thursday Now

Another Lawrence’s Maxim might come as a shock given I’ve been drip feeding them out on Saturdays up until now — but the truth is I quite enjoy writing them, there’s lots of books on the possible shortlist, & I’m running out of time. Three days only left of this year’s Glo/NaPoWriMo so I figured what they hey (I already have one planned for the final day & there was the special Blue Shakespeare edition Wednesday Last) …

As is often the case, the Factoid became more fun & grew in the telling to be a quirky little thing all its own.

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Thursday Next

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Day 28 Factoid — Thursdays on my mind

7 Thursday week: a Fun Factoid pome told in seven days

That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.
Paris

i.
We all know it’s named after 
Thor (Norse god of thunder)

but after that Thursday 
fun facts tend to dry up

ii.
some folks call it “Friday’s Friday” 
given it heralds Friday
& therefore hurrah!  the weekend

i prefer to think of it more 
as Wednesday’s Thursday
— but it seems less exciting

iii. 
Thanksgiving (a local US custom) 
is always celebrated on November’s 
fourth Thursday

er, iv.
the chemical element Thorium (Th) 
is named after Thor, which means
it’s indirectly connected to Thursday

v.
Richard Osman’s now making tons 
of money after choosing Thursday 
as the day his Murder Club meets

vi.
Thursday is mentioned more times
in Shakespeare than any other day

17 including the phrase “Thursday Next”
uttered by three separate characters:
Paris, Capulet, & Friar Maximillian Laurence (no relation)

vii. 
come this Thursday next
i won’t have to crank out 
three poems daily & can 
                                      finally rest

Day 2 – rereading + most read

Quite probably a topic I shall return to again & again …

five repeat offenders: re-reading

It is far, far better to read one book six times, at intervals, than to read six several books.
— D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse

going back into the depths of time
Blyton survives despite mild dating dilemmas 
her Five will always be Famous

Anne of All the Different Idyllic 
19th Century Canadian Places*
glorious masterpieces all

for twenty years Tolkien was Christmas
holidays to me with repeated rereads
giving as much delight as presents under the tree

gosh, it’s getting hard down this end of the list
why did I set myself only 5 when 8 or a dozen 
would’ve enabled far more faves 

there’s newcomers like The Princess Bride
quirky Thursday Next, & Pullman’s Dark Materials
but I guess I must really mention oft-reread big guns

Austen outshines the Brontes; & Shakespeare, Dickens; 
earthy Lawrence over elegant F. Scott, & the Greek 
playwrights are repeatedly visited but all here are intimates

we are today overwhelmed with such quantities of books
but these are valuable as jewels, or a lovely picture, 
into which I can look deeper & deeper 

— & yet still have a profound experience every time

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Factoid 2 – best selling books

best sellers

several sites agree
on the three best-selling 
books in the world

the Holy Bible
the Harry Potter series 
Quotations from Chairman Mao

one i’ve read a couple of times
one at least seven
& one never

as Meatloaf semisang
two outta three ain’t bad

*yes I know they were written in the 20th century
but the first ones were set at the end of the 19th which sounds better so,
poetic license