The Mason Williams Reading Matter

by Mason Williams

Mr Williams book answers the question "What is Acrostic". This begs the question of "What is acoustic?" The answer of course is "42" The resistivity of the air in 1969 was 42. But this has changed. The units for measuring the resistivity have changed so the resistivity is no longer 42. See the Philip Morse book on acoustics, or the one by Kinsler.

Genres: Poetry, Humor, Nonfiction

145 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Kristi]

If I could own only one book, this is the one. I have probably read it 50 times since the early 70's when my favorite teacher introduced it to me in English class. I could never look at saltines in the same way.

[Marc]

Read this in the 70s. A good friend's brother had it and loaned it to me. What a gas.

Favourite:

Today I bought a [42?] pound fountain pen.

[Ardyss (With Her Head in a Book)]

Have you ever stumbled across something understanding not in the slightest what mark it would leave on your personhood? Maybe you found it laying in the street gutter or just on the kitchen table as if it has always been there. You just never realized it. Maybe you picked it up once, flipped it over, and put it back down. But you couldn't leave it there, just sitting out in the open. Maybe, just maybe, something kept pulling you back toward it—a quiet grandness.

Well, that's this book.

It's a plain cover and almost looks self-published. Something that doesn't quite grab the eye at first glance. My own copy I found at an impromptu garage sale in Hollywood in a free-for-all bin, so it's tattered and something I passed over again, and again, and again, and one more time, until I flipped it over.

And then fell in love
And then I took it home.

The Mason Williams Reading Matter now sits in our living room, hidden in plain sight, waiting for some other curious kind to pass it by. I share it with anyone who has an interest in poetry, comedy, or something off-kilter.

If you have the chance, find a copy of William's work. Nothing seems more fitting than a well-loved version (instead of the whopping brand new and rare $80 copy); seems to embed the values of the collection best. In no time at all, you'll find yourself burning through the book in a single sitting, again, and again, and again, and one more time until another page has come unattached to the spine. Think of it as art in the making; slide it back in and keep on reading.

[Jack]

I first found out about this book in 1975 when taking a public speaking course in college. One of my classmates read the story entitled: "How To Derive Maximum Enjoyment From Crackers" for an assignment - causing everyone in the class to howl with laughter - and I knew I had to have this book! Unfortunately, it took me almost 35 years to find a copy that wasn't in a library!

Mason Williams is best known for his one-hit-wonder instrumental composition called "Classical Gas." But, he seems to have also had an oddly-wonderful sense of humor, as is evidenced by this book. I mean, just check out this poem called "Toad Suckers" from 1964 (yes, it and others like it, are in the book):

How ’bout them toad suckers,
ain’t they clods?
Sittin' there suckin'
Them green toady-frogs.

Suckin' them hop-toads,
Suckin' them chunkers,
Suckin' them leapy-types,
Suckin' them plunkers.

Look at them toad suckers,
Ain't they snappy?
Suckin' them bog-frogs,
Sure makes 'em happy.

Them hugger-mugger toad suckers,
way down south,
Stickin’ them sucky-toads
in they mouth.

How to be a toad sucker?
No way to duck it.
Gittchyseff a toad,
rear back and suck it!

Let me tell you this: If you come across this book, read it. If the first few pages don't bring a smile to your face, and a chuckle to your heart, then there is little that can be done for you. If it does, then buy the book!

If for nothing else than learning "How To Derive Maximum Enjoyment From Crackers".

[David Ward]

The Mason Williams Reading Matter by Mason Williams (Doubleday & Co. Inc. 1969)
(811.54) (3679).

I haven’t heard the name Mason Williams uttered in too many years. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, he was a chart-busting songwriter and musician (Classical Gas) and a regular on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when it was the cutting edge of topical humor.

This was a dog-eared old book that I first stumbled across at an old hippy’s house in 1980. I have intended ever since to locate a copy for my personal library, and I finally pulled the trigger forty years later.

The Mason Williams Reading Matter reads like a reprinting of a notebook that the author must have carried with him to jot down random thoughts in the middle of the day for future use or consideration. These are trivial and totally disconnected entries. Most of them are weird, and some of them are as funny as hell.

To wit: “I think it would have been nice to have shared a room with Beethoven and when someone remarked, upon hearing one of his compositions, “Isn’t that great!” I could say, “Yep, my roommate wrote it.”

Or this little poem, which is called “Little Toy Shovels”: “As little toy shovels Are lost by the sea, So are the children Like you and me.”

Eclectic, check. Quick and easy reading, check. Weirdly funny? Well I think so.

I purchased a used PB copy in good condition on Amazon on 8/31/22 for $13.94.

My rating: 7.25/10, finished 9/5/22 (3679).

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[JC]

What an odd great little book.

[Paul Grooms]

a mixture of whimsical, erotic, profound poems, observations. always a delight when I discover it again

[SD]

I loved this then, and still love it now. Clever, surreal, outrageous.

[Geoff Winston Leghorn Balme]

Sweet sixties fun from an inspired humorist and musician most famous for his time with the Smother's brothers. His album The Mason Williams Phonograph Record is indelibly imprinted on my brain it being one my father enjoyed spinning in our household growing up. I eventually inherited that LP and still find myself humming the tunes, the best known of which is certainly "Classical Gas".

This little book is a mishmash of poetry photographs and absurdist stories bound to amuse anyone with a penchant for that era's Lenny Bruce style irreverence and a sweet spot for Pythonesque joviality.

[Andrew]

Really offbeat, often hilarious and surreal little book.

[Emily]

This book contains my favorite shape poem about x-mas (quite the distinction!), and, within that, one of my favorite made-up phrases: christmastreetion camp.

[mart]

Poems and Prose by turns thoughtful and hilarious.

[Dave Vroman]

Loved it
I still quote the christmas tree poem for my grandkids.