MAINE CURIOSITIES: QUIRKY CHARACTERS, ROADSIDE ODDITIES & OTHER OFFBEAT STUFF, by Tim Sample and Steve Bither, The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, Conn., 2002, 211 pages, $12.95.

This book is a half-gallon jar of hard candies; you know, the round ones, each a different color. You reach in and it takes you forever to choose one. But you know they are all going to be good; that’s the important thing.

There are 70-something morsels between the covers of this collection of anecdotes, reports, jokes, odd stories, photographs, line drawings and other tidbits, each organized for your edification, amusement and entertainment. Well, “organized” may give you the wrong impression, because this is anything but a formally structured book. It never will be used as a text.

But it does have a kind of structure, built around the names of the 62 Maine communities listed under the heading “contents.”

They begin with Andover, end with Yarmouth and you can bet that some readers will play the “contents” game: They’ll name one of the towns and you’ll have to guess the oddity or curiosity that certifies its inclusion.

Example: Freeport? Come on. You know it. The Big Indian. Right on.

Or, Windham? This one’s a bit more difficult. It’s Babb’s Bridge, or today’s replica of the original covered bridge built in 1864 using the Howe truss construction

method. Read a bit further and you’ll learn a Howe truss was what bridge workers had to wear when they carried the heavy timbers.

Yes, this is the kind of book it is. You didn’t think for a moment that Tim Sample had turned serious all of a sudden. Neither he nor Steve Bither, his friend and partner in humor, got where they are in the world of New England entertainment by being serious. But neither is the book a series of jokes strung together on a loose geographical string. Many pages are genuinely informative, such as the piece on Moody’s Diner, which has been a roadside attraction on Route 1 in Waldoboro since the 1920s, or the statue-freshwater drinking fountain of “Boy With a Leaky Boot” in Houlton.

For those of us who live in a Maine town listed in the contents, the first question is: “What did they pick from here?” I live in Brunswick, but I’ve never visited Tibby Motors on the Old Bath Road where owner John Lee stores fully restored classic cars including his wife’s ’38 Bentley. There, see, I learned something right away.

And for those readers who yearn for a classic bit of Tim Sample’s unique Maine humor: Well, they’ll have to search a bit, but it’s here. Like the one about the tourist who approaches a lobsterman building traps.

Tourist: “Do you suppose I could buy one of these?”

Lobsterman: “I could let you have one for $75.”

Tourist walks off, comes back. “How about one of those old, beat-up traps in that pile over there?”

L: “That’ll cost you $150.”

T: “I don’t get it. Why are you charging twice as much for old, beat-up traps?”

L: “That’s easy. They ain’t mine.”

See. This is the sort of book this is: easygoing, light, funny here and there, and, believe it or not, informative.

It’s the perfect book to leave on the bedside table in your guestroom. Cousin Janet from Lansing or Uncle Jeffrey from Iowa City will consider themselves lucky to be so well-informed about Maine without ever having to leave the comforts of your home. And one bright morning when you tell your guests, “Today we’re going to Boothbay Harbor to see the Giant Fiberglass Fisherman,” they’ll feel so fine when they can reply, “Oh yeah, I know all about it. I read about it in that Maine book.”

They’ll also know all about 50 or 60 other curiosities, quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff, such as how come the A-1 Diner in Gardiner serves Vietnamese bouillabaisse fairly regularly?

You’ll have to read the book.