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Everyone loves to check out other people's bookshelves. Here is mine for your perusal. This also gives me the perfect opportunity to share a bunch of my favorite writers and show off some of my favorite tchotchkes.

1. Starting with the musical instruments... this one is called an otamatone. Invented by the Japanese art unit, Maywa Denki, the otamatone is an electronic instrument played by running your fingers along a touch-sensitive strip on the stem. It creates a theremin-like glissando, to which you can then add a wah-wah effect by squeezing the mouth open. See it played in this video.

2. These knockmen wind-up toys are also by Maywa Denki. See them demonstrated here.

3. Last Last Chance by Fiona Maazel — her debut novel, about fun stuff like plagues, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation. So psyched for her next novel, Woke Up Lonely, which comes out in April.

4. Spinning choral top, given to me by Nelly Reifler. When the top gets going, it creates a beautifully disturbing series of minor chords. Nelly's beautifully disturbing collection of short stories, See Through, is also on the shelf.

5. Unusual-creature stuffed animals! The axolotl was given to me by my editor at Chronicle Books, Melissa Manlove. Thanks, Melissa! I purchased the slow loris while visiting the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, NC, last year. And the tardigrade was made by a talented crochetist (is that a word?) who runs an Etsy shop called Zombigurumi Love.

6. The Paris Review Book: Of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, the Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World Since 1953. Proud to say I actually had the chance to work with the great George Plimpton. My band, One Ring Zero, performed with him at Central Park SummerStage just a few weeks before he passed away. Such an amazing guy. Did you know he wrestled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground when RFK was assassinated? Crazy.

7. Mary Roach's Bonk and Packing for Mars are must-reads. Pooping in space! In fact, you should read everything by Mary Roach. She rules! Her next book, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, comes out next year. Can't wait!

8. Remember the mixtape? Cassette from My Ex by Jason Bitner is a collection of stories and soundtracks of lost loves. Great stuff. And to boot, there's a story in there by yours truly.

9. Here I have the almost-complete collection of works by Rick Moody. My favorite of the bunch is Demonology. Incidentally, yesterday was Rick's birthday. Happy birthday, Rick!

10. Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay won the Pulitzer Prize for good reason. Around the same time, I asked him if he would be willing to write lyrics for my band. Unfortunately, he was too busy and sent a very nice rejection letter... which I immediately set to music. After all, they're his lyrics.

11. When I first moved to New York in 2001, the McSweeney's publishing house was based in a tiny store just a few blocks away from me in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I quickly became friends with them, and between 2001 and 2003, One Ring Zero was essentially the "house band" for McSweeney's, meaning we played at just about all of their literary events. It was a ton of fun. During this period I collected lots of McSweeney's books.

12. Paul Auster also lives in my neighborhood, and for a while we worked together on several projects. Many of his books live on this shelf. Oracle Night is one of my favorites.

13. An orange cat figurine! My nephew, Felix, made it for me when he was nine. It's Sculpey, I think?

14. One Ring Zero toured with Jonathan Ames when his book Wake Up, Sir! came out. We performed with him at Powell's, actually. For some reason I don't have Wake Up, Sir! in my collection, so I'll point out The Extra Man instead. It helps to have a lime-green book.

15. Not only is Neil Gaiman a talented writer, but he also has 1,773,661 followers on Twitter. Good lord. Fragile Things is a fantastic collection of his short stories and poetry. He also kindly mentions One Ring Zero in the intro... therefore, I shall mention him here, on the Powell's blog.

And with that, I've concluded my week of guest blogging on the Powell's website. It's been a blast. Thanks for having me! Thanks for reading! Now go buy some

Bored at work? Watch these videos. Maybe just turn down your volume a touch. There are certain things described in my book, Unusual Creatures, which you simply must see to believe. Here are a few of my favorites. Oh, and the last link is an audio clip. Needless to say, you will need to turn your volume up for that one.

The Jesus Christ lizard and its amazing ability to run on water.

The mimic octopus altering its shape, color, and even behavior to impersonate other creatures.

The amazingly disgusting amount of slime that a hagfish can make in just a few minutes.

The tardigrade, and how this microscopic creature is the toughest animal on the planet.

The anglerfish and its most-peculiar mating behavior.

A slow loris getting tickled. (Note: In no way do I promote owning a slow loris as a pet. But this, my friends, is very cute.)

The blue-footed booby and its fancy dance.

Super-rare footage of a long-eared jerboa.

A sea pig doing its thing.

The incredible sounds of the Weddell seal, as recorded by Douglas Quin, PhD, with a simple pair of underwater microphones.

Manny lives just around the corner from me, in front of the big red building on Sixth Avenue. He's fearless and happy. I first noticed him when he was living on my block about two years ago. He would flop on the sun-drenched sidewalk, squinting his eyes at me and showing off his gray and black stripes. Each day, I would inch a little closer to him, testing the boundaries. Eventually I reached down to pet him, and he pushed his head back into my hand wanting more.

Although he has no collar and is clearly a street cat, Manny is more trusting than just about any cat I've ever met. Perhaps his trust comes from the endless supply of cat food left for him by passersby. One elderly man in particular — a long-bearded, thick-lensed retiree — seems to be responsible for most of his daily feedings. His name is Danny and he is a former postal worker who now spends much of his time walking to the grocery store and back, where he buys, among other things, cat food for Manny. One time I saw Danny walking down the street, and out of nowhere Manny came chasing after him. When Danny reached the stoplight, Manny caught up with him and tapped him on the leg. Danny looked down and mumbled, "Oh," through his gray beard and then promptly turned around to feed him.

Last year I took a picture of Manny and posted it to Facebook. My caption: "This guy's been ruling our street for the past several months. Unless there are objections, we've decided to name him MANNY."

The responses...

BB: "That cat spends a lot of time in our planters and on our stoop. Because of its wandering ways I took to calling it Sojourner Truth. However, after realizing it's actually a he we re-dubbed him Charlemagne..."

LP: "I know this little guy — his/her ear is clipped so I think he/she might be fixed. That is the universal TNR (trap/neuter/release) symbol for 'fixed' — what a sweetie!

BB: "Oh, I always wondered about his ear!"

SF: "I assumed Charlemanny was an outdoor resident of one of the houses he hangs in front of (green house?). So friendly."

Apparently he has many names: Charlemagne, Kitty, Tiger, etc. He will always be Manny to me. The name "Tiger" was given to him by the fellow who owns the big red building on Sixth Avenue. This gentleman has done a fantastic thing — he has turned the gated front stoop of his building into a Manny sanctuary. He has even gone as far as to build him a cardboard house, complete with a plastic, rainproof roof. Next to the house is a small folding cot, which Manny can lounge in. The wrought-iron gate that separates Manny from the public is lined with vertical bars, spaced just wide enough for him to slip through but narrow enough to keep out dogs and mean people. With his fancy new abode, Manny has found a few companions, in particular a petite, similar-looking cat named Fanny. Fortunately for Fanny, Manny is very generous with his food and his space.

At least twice a day I walk out of my way to check on Manny. When he sees me coming, he typically sallies over and plows into my leg. He likes it when I scratch him under his chin. Danny also stops by at least once or twice a day to deliver food. In fact, Manny spends the better part of his day greeting people on the sidewalk, chasing leaves and taking naps in his house. During the night Manny can often be found on the cot with Fanny at his side. I'm fairly certain he's smiling.

Any Camille Saint-Saëns fans out there? I've been asked many times why I wrote Unusual Creatures, and the answer is simple: The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. You should listen to it right now. It's a true masterpiece. And just look at his beard.

When I was in high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I listened to a lot of music. Not just bands like Pink Floyd, Oingo Boingo, and Led Zeppelin but also to classical music (mostly found in my stepfather's collection). A few stuck out more than others: Gustav Holst's The Planets, Philip Glass's Metamorphosis, Kronos Quartet's eponymous album (which contained their amazing version of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze"), and Camille Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. It's fairly safe to say that these recordings were a major part of why I decided to go to music school. I wanted to write music like that.

Five years later, with a degree in music composition, I got busy, mostly with my band One Ring Zero but eventually under my own name too. Recently I decided to look back at who inspired me to do what I do. Camille Saint-Saëns! Why don't I try to compose something similar to The Carnival of the Animals? For his musical suite, Saint-Saëns wrote a series of pieces that allude to common animals — the elephant, the tortoise, and the swan, among others. For mine, I would compose songs inspired by lesser-known animals: the dugong, the aye-aye, the Magnapinna squid.

I've also long been a collector of oddball musical instruments. Why not try to pair some of these animals with the instruments? "Glass Frog" could be performed on the Benjamin Franklin–invented glass armonica, "Honey Badger" could be played on the daxophone, and "Blobfish" could be played on the tubax.

In the spring of 2012, Songs for Unusual Creatures was released. But my interest in strange animals was just beginning. I continued to research and write. I took suggestions from friends and compiled lists. I called zoologists and visited zoos. And with a little help from my book agent, designers, illustrator, and publisher, Unusual Creatures was born. All because of Camille

Hello Powell's blog readers! What an honor to be here. And to celebrate, I thought I would start with a recipe for wombat poop fudge. (Note: there is no actual wombat poop in this recipe.)

Last Thursday was the release party for my new book Unusual Creatures, and as a party favor, I thought it would be fun to supply the guests with wombat poop fudge. You see, wombats poop cubes — a fact I'm so fascinated by that I've even included a diagram of the poop in the book. Why does the wombat poop cubes? Simple: it uses its poop as a trail marker, and it doesn't want the marker to roll away. Duh!

So, here I set off to make a tasty treat that looks like the fecal matter of this short-legged Australian marsupial. Actually, I started with the idea to make wombat poop brownies. My first recipe was derived from Karen DeMasco's book The Craft of Baking. Unfortunately, as delicious as those brownies were, they didn't have the right consistency to mold into small cubes. Also, I'm not sure what sort of oven DeMasco used for testing her recipes, but I pretty much needed to double the cooking time, and even with that, the brownies were gooey in the middle. It occurred to me that perhaps wombat brownies were not the best option and I should shift gears to wombat poop fudge.

I opened up my copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything and got to work. Within a matter of minutes, my entire apartment building reeked of burnt sugar. Ack. In order for fudge to become fudge, the temperature of the mixture needs to reach 236°F. Mine never got there. Even at a relatively low temperature, the mixture just burned. In fact, it was so badly burned that the pot I had been using was thrown out. (Yes, I tried to soak it with hot water. I even tried a hammer and chisel.)

Anyway, moving on, I decided to make a slightly more lame — but perfectly delicious — version of fudge. Really, it all comes down to the shaping anyway. Oh, and I added some salt because salt makes just about everything taste better.

1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk

1 (18 oz.) bag of semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter

Salt

Over low heat, melt butter in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips. Stir constantly until chips have melted and mixture is well blended. Pour mixture into a foil-lined 9x11-inch baking dish. (Yes, it will be a thin layer of fudge.) Allow to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then place in the refrigerator for another hour or two. Remove from the refrigerator and cut into 1-centimeter-wide strips. With strips still in place, cut perpendicular so that you now have many 1-centimeter-wide cubes. Place three or four cubes in a small baking cup. Sprinkle with salt, and serve. Wombat poop fudge!

Illustrations by Jelmer Noordeman; design by Arjen Noordeman and Christie