Last July, I think it was, I was on a bit of a Philip K. Dick kick, going through the shelf in the Central Library which had a bunch of his books. Not, oddly enough, his most famous works; these were instead minor pieces, which suited me fine; I like to approach something from its less-prominent examples. For example, the last I read in this run was Eye In The Sky, in which a group of people are tossed by accident into a succession of universes, each created from the mind of the participants in turn. The one I found most striking was one created by a censorious prude who keeps removing things from the world as she finds them unpleasant. One by one, out go cuss words, loud car horns, factories that don't make pleasant things like scented soap ... before long she gets around to eliminating gender, and I enjoyed the twist that one of the other characters liked the universe better that way.
I didn't continue after that, though; usually when I get into a mood for an author I keep reading until I've had my fill and let the author go for who knows how long. But when I went back to the library the other Dick books -- besides the ones I'd read recently -- weren't on the shelf. All right; well, it's easy enough to visit again the next day. No luck. And again. And, for that matter, Eye In The Sky didn't appear either. And in the next week the books I had read recently were gone.
I was tempted to ask a librarian about them, but I was scared that the answer might be ``Philip K. Who?''
Trivia: Thalia was the muse of comedy and burlesque. Source: Who's Who In Mythology: A Classic Guide To The Ancient World, Alexander S. Murray.
Currently Reading: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, Philip K. Dick. Borrowed from the Science Library.