"Books for Dummies" R US ...

You see them everywhere ... and most of us probably have one or two on our desk or bookshelves. I'm talking about the sometimes humorous, but always informative "Books for Dummies." I currently have these two on my desk ...

And I plan to buy this one on November 17th,when it hits the shelves at Barnes and Noble ...

I also want these two ...

Before I wrote this post, I "googled" Dummies Books and was amazed to discover that there are literally hundreds of them on the market.

I found books for dummies on just about any subject you can imagine. Take for instance Decorating ... a subject near and dear to most of our hearts. There's Home Decorating for Dummies, Cake Decorating for Dummies, Holiday Home Decorating for Dummies, Window Treatments and Slip Covers for Dummies, Kitchen Remodeling, Sewing, and Organizing for Dummies, and even Home Staging for Dummies (I wouldn't mind having that one!).

There are books on Travel ... (England, Australia, Scotland, Costa Rica, London, Rome, Europe, and the Bahamas, to name just a few).

Dummies can also learn the Language of their destination country or city ... including English, Portuguese, Russian, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French and Arabic, for instance.

There were also books for dummies who want to take an RV Vacation, or perhaps take up a new Hobby like Beekeeping, Ballet, Coin Collecting, Forensics (gotta love it), House Plants, Magic, Quilting, Scrapbooking, Home Brewing, Gardening, or Robot Building (I kid you not).

I discovered that musically-inclined dummies can learn how to play the Piano, Drums, Harmonica, Violin, Banjo, and an assortment of different kinds of Guitars.

And if a dummy is considering getting a New Pet, he, or she, can learn all there is to know about Cats, Dogs, Kittens, Puppies, Horses, Rabbits, Birds, Ferrets, Parakeets, Hamsters, Turtles and Tortoises, Reptiles and Amphibians, and Parrots! I even saw one called Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies.

And for all the Sports dummies out there, they can breathe a sigh of relief because there are books for them, too -- on Football, Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, Formula One Racing, Figure Skating, and Poker.

And for those of us who are "computer or internet-challenged" (I prefer that to "dummies," don't you?) ... there are books about Buying a Computer, PCs for Dummies, Google for Dummies, The Internet for Dummies, Windows Vista, MacBook for Dummies, Windows XP, and even a Computers for Seniors for Dummies book.

And for the more "computer-literate dummy," there are books on SQL, XML, CISSP, RFID, VoIP, SAS (no, not the shoes), UML2, and PHP5. I don't have a clue what any of those are, so I guess I need a Computer Acronyms Made Simple for Dummies Book. And after reading it ... I'm sure I would need the Stress Management, Overcoming Anxiety, and Meditation for Dummies books.

As if all these books aren't enough, there are a few dummy books I could use which I didn't find ... like these:

I could have used this one last week when
I received my first text message on my cell phone.

I didn't even know I could get text messages, but my computer-network-engineer-son sent one to me after I had tried to reach him by phone. He "text-messaged" me that he was in a meeting and wanted to know if everything was okay. Now, I had no idea how to reply and didn't have my glasses with me at the time, so I was doubly handicapped, but knew he would worry if he didn't hear back from me.

After several attempts to enter the word, "yes," on my cell phone to let him know we were okay, I finally got "yes" on the screen and pushed the "send" button on my cell phone. Just as I pushed it, I saw that the message had changed from "yes," to "yesterday," thanks to the settings on the phone being set to automatically fill in words. I figured my son would know we were all right, except for my text-messaging skills, of course.

Another one I could use ...

I know ... it's kind of pitiful that a grown woman doesn't know how to gargle, but any time I've ever tried, I've almost drowned myself. I finally came to the conclusion that life's too short and I can live the rest of my days in peace without knowing how to gargle.

I've probably told you way more than you wanted to know about books for dummies, but I like them and think they have a place in today's world ... they're kind of like "cliff notes" for everyday life, and most of them, I've found, are definitely not for dummies.