Books Lyrics

LILY:
Do you know what's in his room? Books,
Hundreds of books under lock and key.

CARNEY:
Well, there it is.

Books! They're at the root of it.
Books! You know they're dangerous.
All that junk piled up in your flat.
Here, have some more...

LILY:
Not only that. He cooks
Revolting foreign things.

CARNEY:
Cooks?

LILY:
Can you imagine it?
Plates of stuff with parsley on top!
Here, let me pour...

CARNEY:
I'll have a drop.

BOTH:
But
Books! It isn't natural,
Just think how bad it looks -
To peek through the crack
And meet with a stack
Of books!

LILY:
By rights, Mister Carney, Alfie should be married and out of the house.

CARNEY:
My sentiments exactly! And then it'll just be us, Mr. and Mrs. William Carney.
Ah, Lily, I wouldn't stay out of the house...

If it was me, I'd be home at five with some chops, or liver, or ham,
And every single Sunday we would have lamb.

LILY:
Lamb...

CARNEY:
We'd take a stroll, watching people pass,
And at Mass we'd share the same pew,
Oh, that's what I'd like to do,
Ah, Lily...

LILY:
Don't lose your head -
Not till he's wed.

Some days
I wonder where he got such queer and foreign ways.

CARNEY:
He got it from all the smut that he reads,
You know where smut eventually leads...

LILY:
His manly impulses all bottled up.

CARNEY:
Well, that's why the poor sod cooks.

BOTH:
The man needs a wife
To ruin his life,
Not books!
Books!

Books Lyrics A Man of No Importance musical