Quick question for the bibliophiles...
... and I know there's no shortage.

I'm trying to identify a book that was my favourite when I was very young, and which I've not seen for about 30 years. I can't remember much about it, except some of the text:

This is a dot, little and fine
Stretch it out, and now it's a line.
Bend it a bit, and what will it be?
The finest circle you ever did see...

I can't believe that that was the whole thing - even by the standards of children's books, that seems a bit thin.

Does it ring a bell with anyone else?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:34, 59 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

You read children's books?
Surely only the very pretentious ones?
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:39, Reply)

He steals them off his turkish boy

(Bazongaloid, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:40, Reply)

"100 Popular Kebab Recipes for Catamites"

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:41, Reply)

It's a classic for a reason

(Bazongaloid, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:41, Reply)

Yes, I read children's books
and I'm ashamed.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:43, Reply)

They'll kick you out of the reading room in the Library of Pretentious Literary Leanings for that.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:44, Reply)

I know.
I'm using internet anonymity for a reason.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:47, Reply)

You aren't anonymous if would-be stalkers can find out your address and threaten you in about 3 minutes flat.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:48, Reply)

Bah!
Pesky kids...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:49, Reply)

*makes note*
*googles CHCB*
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:50, Reply)

This is very true

(Bazongaloid, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:50, Reply)

I don't know what the book is called, but:
score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/the_dot/pages/thedot.htm
(Bazongaloid, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:39, Reply)

Hmmmm...
It's close, certainly...

but not quite what I remember. (And a bit nauseating. I hope that this isn't what impressed me as a toddler...)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:41, Reply)

Drawing Breasts
by Ivor Bigun
(Fancy a weekend on my Raymondo Luxury Yacht?, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:40, Reply)

i like breasts
I've also sung live on stage with Ivor Biggun, trufax
( broadsword, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:41, Reply)

He exists?
Awesome. I thought I'd just made him up.
(Fancy a weekend on my Raymondo Luxury Yacht?, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:42, Reply)

We was also
Dr Cox on That's Life.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:46, Reply)

'Cox' huh huh!

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:52, Reply)

He was also
as terminally unfunny as Ross Nurble.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:55, Reply)

Yes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3n4nwzObGk
( broadsword, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:06, Reply)

'Fraid not, sorry.
Mine was Thucydides' 'History of the Peloponnesian War'.


It wasn't really.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:41, Reply)

I prefer Herodotus.

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:44, Reply)

really? why's that?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:48, Reply)

Largely because I've not read Thucydides.
Largely Entirely
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:49, Reply)

Ha!
Have you ever read Lucretius' 'On The Nature of the Universe'?

He expounds the theory that everything is made from atoms (I found this amazing) - but also some monumentally incorrect other stuff. It's quite readable for that very reason.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:53, Reply)

I haven't...
... but it's on my list of things to read if I get study leave next year.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:55, Reply)

And...
...oddly enough he suggests there is no such thing as the will of God(s) and that all is down to chance in an indifferent universe.

What tish and pish eh?
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:59, Reply)

I kno. Wot a fackin cock eh?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:03, Reply)

If he got in the back of my cab...
...I'd tell him to fuck off and shove his didactic poems up his arse the dirty Roman cahnt.
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:09, Reply)

The Spartans 'did it'.
Sorry to spoil it for everyone, but...
(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:46, Reply)

How selfish of you.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:49, Reply)

And the Trojans stopped the Semenites.

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:51, Reply)

DO YOU WANT NAUGHTY STEPPING?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:53, Reply)

Do you want a punch in the cock?

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:56, Reply)

No sir. Sorry sir.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:59, Reply)

What are we
some kind of library reference system?

If I had a kipper I'd slap you with it
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:45, Reply)

Mmmmmm

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:46, Reply)

You can be Dewey
I'll be Decimal
(Bazongaloid, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:46, Reply)

I'll be Library of Congress

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:53, Reply)

Is the Library of Congress
a multi-volume book about shagging?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:56, Reply)

Why, yes!
Yes it is.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:58, Reply)

It's not unlike the Diet of Worms.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:00, Reply)

That would make a less compelling title for a book about shagging.

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:00, Reply)

yeah Monty do the words 'diet' and 'worms' make you feel sexeh?

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:04, Reply)

No miss. Sorry miss.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:06, Reply)

*Does a "Shush!"*

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:08, Reply)

"lets get insexing"

(PsychoChomp, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:55, Reply)

Wow offers from you and AL
isn't it my lucky day
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:59, Reply)

You could do a lot worse than either of us.

(PsychoChomp, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:08, Reply)

*insert 'mong' picture*

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:10, Reply)

All the worse people left though
It's not like the old heady days of sexy stig, enticing ed and blazing blairoueoris
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:10, Reply)

man, the stig was annoying
he's the only person I've ever received a whiny gaz from. he just wasn't cut out for this place.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:16, Reply)

TERRIBLE nom de plume as well.
You're either saying 'I'm a neanderthal living in the modern age, at the dump', or 'I just LOVE 'Top Gear', me'.


Neither of which is frightfully enticing, I'd say.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:19, Reply)

It was the latter
He owned a few cars - one of which I think was sporty.
( djtrialprice, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:20, Reply)

He owned shagged a few cars - one of which I think was sporty.
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:21, Reply)

to be fair to him
it was totally asking for it, the slutty mechanical minx
( djtrialprice, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:21, Reply)

al fucks bikes but he's still here

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:29, Reply)

Now I have that terrible 'been-all-round-the-internet' picture stuck in my mind
of that bloke in women's underwear with his cock up the exhaust of a Range Rover.

You know the one I mean, right?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 16:45, Reply)

mmmMMMmmm
Kippers.


Breakfasty.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 11 Jan 2010, 15:48, Reply)