MILK EGGS VODKA [By Bill Keaggy]

Here’s what people are saying about the book on Twitter:

• brandyglows : Milk, Eggs and Vodka by Bill Keaggy may be the funniest book. Ever.
• Autoclave239 : Just found a hilarious book that I must read. It’s called “Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found.”
• fueledbyoreos: I just bought this book called Milk Eggs Vodka. and its basically just full of peoples silly grocery lists. I love it
• Jaykee: note to self : get the book called milk eggs vodka

And here are a few more tweets…

• cclibrarian: I want to read: Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost a… by Bill Keaggy – http://goodreads.com/review/show/62363305
• bridgetmckenzie: @breann_nicole Haha no. It’s in this cool book of found shopping lists I checked out today, called ”Milk Eggs Vodka”. Really fascinating.
• csheffield: Blogging ‘Milk Eggs Vodka’ http://bit.ly/ihf6O
• ferusprocella: Photo: Amazon.com: Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found: Bill Keaggy: Books I saw this @ T.J. Max… http://tumblr.com/xoe1wq5te
• juliejulie: At borders in Eugene looking at book called: milk, eggs, vodka grocery lists lost and found by bill keaggy. Hilarious!
• Jojo_katarzyna: Just saw a book that was called ” milk, eggs and vodka ” wtf? Lol
• pcurl: I have to go to the store, but I don’t need onions. Cleaning supplies, beer, milk, eggs, vodka … http://bit.ly/dLU6M http://bit.ly/Owv7D
• paigepresley: @dankcook I think I’m more interested in the titles you purchased on 4/14/2008… Milk Eggs Vodka?
• modernemama: An antidote to tea parties RT @midosmom: @modernemama just learning this tweet stuff, but google milk, eggs, vodka for a good laugh.
• omg_raptor: Milk, Eggs, Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost & Found. I want this book! http://is.gd/t1fe
• Librarian74: Want to read: Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found by Bill Keaggy – http://tinyurl.com/dxy3t4
• lpdnvr: has read Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found by Bill Keaggy – http://is.gd/lmqS
• Dani_H: @supa Isn’t ‘Milk, Eggs, Vodka’ great?
• imperialczarina: Milk Eggs Vodka http://tinyurl.com/88dtyd it may just be a coffee table book, but I want it
• mradomski: @hyperboledotzip Not sure what Phish says about a person, we have Creature by Andrew Zukerman, Post Secret and Milk, Eggs and Vodka
• naliniprasanna: want to read: Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found

And that’s just this year’s tweets!

Get a copy for yourself at Amazon. :-)

Hey, I gave grocerylists.org a facelift. Highlights include:

• It actually looks cool, finally — has the feel of a publication
• Added the 2,000th list
• You can now upload a list to me through the contact form
• All blog posts now categorized
• The lists themselves are faster, easier to browse

Waste some time. Go check it out.

…but here are some blog mentions, just for the freakin’ hell of it.

• Pure, poor desire at Ferus Procella: “I still want this book. Badly. I hate being poor.”
• Big giggles at Shotty, No Blitz!: “…spent half an hour standing in the Humor section laughing through my teeth…”
• Just a mention at Absolut Materialist.
• Look at all these fake reviews! Weird! The best one? … “I fuck this book… it cracks me up!”
• Also noted at shelterric.
• Lickety-List: “I crack up every time I peruse the lists.”
• And finally, as if we didn’t already know it: We’re “odd.”

But then again they are absolutely right:

Based on Keaggy’s website, GroceryLists.org, the book is viewable online and is absolutely a must-see for anyone interested in found items, mild voyeurism, and the human condition.

Been a bit busy and haven’t blogged the blog mentions, so let’s do another gang roundup:

1. Sweatervestboy calls the intro story, “Amazing.”
2. Dana Graves at The Collecting Gene says, “I don’t know why THIS collection is so interesting…”
3. Michelle says, “fabulous, very funny“
4. Whippleworld says, “This is brilliant“
5. One Girl Revolution says, “This one is FUNNY!“
6. Sarah Cool says, “I was laughing so hard that I was kind of, well, really embarassing myself. It was soooooooooo funny!!!!!”
7. dreams of cottages says, “i am loving the book milk eggs vodka. i found it as i was browsing through our new non-fiction and was instantly captivated.”

I was on vacation when this got posted, but the awesome mental_floss magazine is giving away a copy of my book Milk Eggs Vodka as part of the Harry Potter madness. It’s probably too late to enter now, but hey, they called the book “hilarious,” so I’m happy.

…John! John typed in “Oh the mundanity,” hit “Publish” and quickly won my potentially everlasting admiration.

Been mighty busy for the last week. I’ve been neglecting most of my sites and I really need to step it up as Guest Editor over at Coudal Partners. Anyway, here’s a quick recap of some recent “Milk Eggs Vodka” blog mentions:

“I love Milk Eggs Vodka” —Gold & Silver Stars

“Yesterday a friend who knows my passion for the novel ‘A Canticle for Liebowitz’ passed me a website that is a posting of peoples Grocery lists…” —Varifrank

“I will be sure to flip through Bill Keaggy’s new book, Milk Eggs Vodka, when I see it.” —The Rage Diaries

“I find this fascinating.” —Beyond Madison Avenue

“This is probably the best way to make money. Collect people’s trash…” —Long Haired Thunder

“What more do you need?” —Strategy Chef

“Speaking of lists….what happens to them when they are tossed? Answer: they could end up in Milk, Eggs & Vodka.” —The Daily Geek

Along with a mention in St. Louis’ Arch City Chronicle, and that’s all for now… more later.

Cool, here’s a post about the lists and the book from the folks at Organic:

I recently discovered grocerylists.org, an ecclectic collection by Bill Keaggy… Keaggy recently published a book entitled “Milk Eggs Vodka” where he reprinted several hundred grocery lists in their crumpled, stained and misspelled glory (featured in AdAge)… As intrepid students of human nature, human behavior and constant seekers of insight, I am sure that we will be pouring over this treasure for some time to come!

The Good: Jen Bekman — someone who I have much respect for — says, “Milk Eggs Vodka is an enjoyable book, well-designed” and calls it “particularly cool.” Thanks, Jen!

The Bad: Uncool Kids thinks Found Magazine was around before The Grocery List Collection. Oh well. “How publishers were giving away grocery bags that promoted Bill Keaggy’s new book Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Store [sic] Lists Lost & Found, basically a rip-off of Found Magazine that looks like it’ll be good for a few laughs.” Not to take anything away from the tireless genius of Davey Rothbart, btw! Found is profoundly awesome. [UPDATE: Stephanie tells me her words came out wrong and she meant it as a compliment... kind of a "if you like this, you might also like this" sort of deal. She amended the site to say "similar to" rather than "rip-off of".] Thanks, Stephanie!

The Beautiful: BB says, “I absolutely LOVE this book cover.” And why not? HOW Books designer Grace Ring did a fantastic job on all of “Milk Eggs Vodka.” Thanks, Grace!

Hey, my book may be kinda funny, but it also could make you think…

I went grocery shopping today, somewhere between talking to my mom on the phone and chasing my dog at the dog park. This isn’t spectacular. People do this every day. I do this at least twice a week. No big deal.

But, I was wondering, between cutting some fruit and reading Milk Eggs Vodka, if we are what we eat, what am I? Below is what I purchased today, all of which I will eat in the next few days.

From Mike Crowl’s Roving Report:

By chance I came across an article today on odd online museums. I guess the Internet is a place where people will try out anything, and here’s one that’s really oddball. It actually manages to turn something mundane into a kind of art work — a ‘found’ art work, in fact — because what Bill Keaggy has done is collect the scraps of paper people write their shopping lists on, and his collection of some 1600 items has all been carefully photographed and put on the Net. Crazy, you think. Well, you’re right. I think even Mr Keaggy thinks it’s crazy, but that hasn’t stopped him writing a book about his collection, called Milk Eggs Vodka, grocery lists lost and found.

It’s worth checking out the top ten lists; they point out some of the curiosities of the lists, and have cheeky comments alongside. But it’s probably even more fun to check out Keaggy’s other (promotional) site, where he writes a short story incorporating some of the lists. I think in the end it’s Keaggy’s own clever sense of humour that makes the lists worth looking at.

An excerpt from over at Journal to a Muse:

Anyway, Milk, Eggs, Vodka is one of the things I bestowed upon my DD for her birthday. It is a book that has photographs (and some comments) about found grocery lists. It is humor, psychology, social anthropology and philosophy all combined… Many of the ones in the book made me feel LESS weird than I usually feel.

Scroll down for this short, but perfect, quickie about MEV:

When making your list for your next trip to the bookstore, put MILK EGGS VODKA: GROCERY LISTS LOST AND FOUND at the very top. An extension of Bill Keaggy’s website on the same subject, the book presents page after page of people’s discarded lists. Aside from the inherent humor in the numerous misspellings of “bananas” or hysterical demands not to forget and/or purchase this product or that, there’s a fascinating, almost voyeuristic aspect at work here as well; some of these lists read like an encoded glimpse into their owners’ personal lives (not that the list simply reading “tissues, oil, AAA batteries” needs much cracking). Thoroughly hilarious, the book made me laugh out loud every few pages. And as good as it is for the funny bone, it’s also fortifying for the eyes, with incredibly attractive design. We also can’t ignore the utterly genius title.

I saw [Milk Eggs Vodka] in Borders yesterday and nearly choked. Well, not choked. I certainly did a double-take. This is a specialized version of the “Found” phenomenon.

Anyway, William Cohen sees poetry in some of the lists he’s found. Check it out.