What? Men read OUTSIDE of the bathroom??

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I have a lot of quippy answers for when people ask me about my favorite books or what I’ve read lately.  Each retort has the goal of portraying me in a certain light to the person or group that I’m talking to.

• I don’t read anything that’s not assigned to me and even then… (overeducated??)
• I try to never read anything that’s not backlit. (makes me seem techie cool)
• Books? Those tree carcasses gross me out. (gives me enviro-appeal)
• I only read in the bathroom (macho man approach)
• Reading is so passive; whenever I’m reading I think that I should be WRITING (creative genius)

The truth is that every now and then I get caught up in a book for whatever reason.  I’m not proud of this, but it does happen.   It just so happens that right now, I am reading two books.

Freakonomics

I decided to get this book because everyone on Earth with a profile anywhere lists this book as something they’ve read.  I also remember hearing people at parties discuss this as if they were economists.  I paid a lot of good money for an undergraduate education in economics (and political science) so I had to know if they got the same thing in a $20 book.

I know they’ve now come out with SUPERFreakonomics, but I don’t wanna jump into that without checking out the original.  It’s a good read so far, but I’ll hold off on reviewing it for now.

Boomsday

This book is by Christopher Buckley.  Mr. Buckley is the only author that when his book comes out, I have to buy it.  Let me clarify: Mr. Buckley is the only author that when his book comes out – IN PAPERBACK – I have to buy it.  I’m a fan, but I’m not crazy enough to pay those hardcover prices.

I originally discovered my admiration for his writing years ago when I read “Thank You For Smoking”.  They turned that one into a movie.  What? You want to see the trailer for that flick?  OK…here goes:

Decent movie, but also inspired me to utter the words that I had thought only the most pretentious on Earth ever let fall out of their mouths:  “the movie was not nearly as good as the book”.  Yeah, I said it.  Again, this isn’t a proud moment for me, but it happens.

It all started with “A Confederacy of Dunces”

This is what started my modest on again/off again, part-time reading habit.  I went into a bookstore and asked for a book that aimed to be humorous without being dumb.  I have never liked the “jokey” books in the humor section.  The bookstore employee

…uh-oh, a JD-ADD interruption….

Do bookstore employees have a cool title?  I don’t know about it, if they do, but I certainly think they deserve one.  I mean, if you make an expensive cup of coffee you get to be called a “barista” and that sounds pretty impressive.  From now on, I’m calling bookstore employees libratechs or maybe tomistas or maybe texticians.  I’ll work on that. Now back to your regularly scheduled DalyDose.

Remember the bookstore employee that I asked about a smart but funny book?  Well, he took me to the literature section and told me a story about a man, John Kennedy Toole, who committed suicide and never saw his book get published, but his mother found the manuscript and toiled for years to get someone to read it.  I was thinking “you DO remember that I said I wanted a “funny’ book, right?”  Just so you know, the mother convinced a college professor to read it after numerous attempts and he sent it to a publisher who published it.  Mr. Toole won the Pulitzer posthumously.  I was sold on this story behind the story and bought the book.  It’s a large book, but I got invested in the characters and made it through.  It was a very funny ride and I’d recommend it.

Oh well…the secret it out.  JD will read on occasion, even if it is not assigned nor backlit and even if it is printed on tree carcass.  I will even read outside of the man library (that’s the bathroom, if you weren’t paying attention).

Don't get me wrong, I still do my outside activities with lots o' sweating involved.  I started a RUNNING and a BIKING program.