Print Isn’t Dead

One summer I didn’t have much to do, so I decided to take a trip to the public library and see what I could find.  After browsing around for quite a while I stumbled across an interesting looking book.  If you have read my previous posts, you would know that I often choose to read books based solely on their cover.  The cover of this book had a big fluttery jellyfish right on the front, and it got my attention.  I checked it out, and started reading it as soon as I got home.  Like most of the characters I like to read about, the main character of this book is a teenage boy who is a little strange.  His parents are a bit strange as well, and they have interesting hobbies.  His mother likes ant farms, and his dad is obsessed with jellyfish.  After the main character drowns, his parents read his extensive journal to get a better idea of what their son was up to and how he was doing before he died.  I thought this premise was fascinating, and spent every spare second reading this book until I finished it.  It is wonderful and heartwarming.  This book is an example of my favorite kind: the kind where when you read the last page you are just depressed because there is not more to read.  I didn’t want this book to end, and I’m sure if you read it you will feel the same way.

This is another book that I am ashamed not to own. Like Colbert, I have been following Amy Sedaris’ work since her first show on Comedy Central. She is a very funny lady and happens to be the sister of my favorite author, David Sedaris. After reading David’s books, I have a much better understanding of Amy’s life and can see how she ended up being so very hilarious. This book is a collection of her entertaining tips she has collected over the years. I have seen examples of them during her guest spots on late night shows like Conan or David Letterman. She has interesting little crafts that you would never learn in Home Economics class. For example, she outlines how to make a playful cat toy only using a tampon, googley eyes and a marker. She also mixes actual recipes into the book, which is an interesting twist considering how funny the rest of the book is. I am really hoping to get this book for Christmas, so I can use it to throw a hilarious and entertaining New Year’s party for all of my friends.

Alright, I have to admit that I am very dissapointed in myself that I didn’t go right out and buy this book the second that it was available. I am a huge fan of Stephen Colbert, and have been since the Exit 57 days. That show was funny, but his next show with his fellow Exit 57 costars was even better. Strangers With Candy was a complete gem of a show and its quirky, dark and satiric humor still makes me laugh when I watch it on DVD today. Also, his stint on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is, in my humble opinion, what made that show worth watching. I was so excited when I found out that he was getting his own satirical political pundit show. The Colbert Report continues to be one of my favorite shows, and I am excited to see what the same type of thing is like in book format.  I have read his other book, Wigfield, and it is wonderful.  It is very funny and is written in the point of view of a familiar Colbert- style character.  The narrator is a very self important and narcissistic writer who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.  This is reminicient of his character on his show, and made the book very entertaining.  While the book was great, it also had other contributing authors.  This is part of the reason I am so excited to see how he does on  his own.  As soon as I get my hands on this book I am definitely going to read it cover to cover.

Unlike the majority of David Sedaris’ work, Barrel Fever is a collection of short stories that are not completely. While it is a collection of short stories like the rest of his books, the majority of the stories in this book are not accounts of his life. It is my impression from reading reviews on the Internet, that this is one of his least favorite books in the eyes of the public. This may be because it is his very first book, and he wasn’t quite the seasoned author back then that he is now. Some of the stories are, in fact, about himself. For example, Santaland Diaries is one of the stories, and it is just as fabulous as his future works. It is a story about his work as an elf in a department store one Christmas, and it is extremely funny. He is the last person I would expect to take a job as an elf, and that is exactly why his story is so amusing. The first story in the book, Parade, is a hilarious satire from the point of view of a celebrity who trashes everyone else in his profession. This book is definitely not my favorite Sedaris work, but it still has a special place in my heart because it is after all, a Sedaris book.

David Sedaris writes short stories.  He writes HILARIOUS short stories.  He writes short stories about his life.  These are the facts one needs to know when preparing to read Me Talk Pretty One Day.   This book is not only hilarious, but like Naked, it provides us with a glimpse into the lives of the very funny Sedaris family.  Because David Sedaris writes stories about his family, he is particularly lucky to have such a funny family.  For Example, in Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris tells us about his sister Amy, and her fat suit.  Amy Sedaris used to be on a show (one of the best shows in the history of the world) called Strangers With Candy.  In the show she played a 40-year-old high school drop out who had a particularly bottom heavy body type.  Apparently, Amy had access to this lower half fat suit after work, and decided to wear it on a visit with her dad.  Her dad has always been very proud of how beautiful and slender Amy is, so when she arrived with a posterior that had been amplified about 50x he was horrified.  This book is filled with silly stories like this that I happen to think are wonderful.  I am also proud to say that I have an autographed copy of this book sitting on my shelf right now, and it is one of my most prized posessions.

Of the two of Burroughs’ autobiographical novels, Running With Scissors is my favorite.  This book is an account of his childhood dealing with his strange parents, and his experiences living with his mother’s psychiatrist.  His mother had emotional problems as well as drug problems and just wasn’t able to deal with Augusten, despite the fact that he was neat and well-behaved.  The most amusing parts of this book are soon after Burroughs moves into the psychiatrist’s family’s home.  Within the home are a bunch of bizarre characters and situations that are both hilarious and fascinating.  I am actually a bit surprised they were able to make this book into a feature film because of its questionable content.  Burroughs’ account of his first experiences as a gay teenager are more than a little racy.  Despite that part of the book, I really enjoyed Running With Scissors , and am glad they made a movie about it.  Of course, I subscribe to the cliche’…”I liked the movie, but the book was better.”

Before telling you about all of Augusten Burroughs’ books, I should fill you in on a little bit of Burroughs’ life.  He was born Christopher Robison in 1965.  He  had a rough childhood due to the way his parents lived their lives.  His mother was and is a poet, and his father was a philosophy professor.  His mother was eccentric and emotional and couldn’t handle him, so she sent him to live with her psychiatrist.  He never graduated high school, but still managed to get a great job in the advertising industry.  This is the aspect of his life that I found most interesting, considering that I am going to school for advertising, and he seemed to just walk right into the industry with no degree or diploma.  I think this fact is pretty impressive.  After leaving advertising, he began writing books, some about his interesting life experiences, and some not.  One of his autobiographical books, Running with Scissors, has been made into a film starring Alec Baldwin.  His novel, Sellevision , is currently being made into a film according to Wikipedia.org.  Once again, my life has been nothing like the life of Augusten Burroughs, thank goodness, but I still find the themes in his books very easy to relate to.  He is a fascinating person and a wonderful author.

Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006 is the last book that Chip Kidd has written. I got it for Christmas last year and it is a wonderful coffee table book. Although it does have a pretty good amount of biographical information, the bulk of the book is visual representations of his book cover designs. Most people don’t have a book about books on their coffee table, but few people who come over to my apartment can resist opening it up. It is always interesting when they find a book that they love, and suddenly realize that someone had to take the time to make the cover for it. Not only that, but they suddenly realize who made the cover. I think that is just fascinating. Most people respond to Kidd’s most famous book cover, the one for Jurassic Park. This book does not have as much personal information about Kidd’s life as The Cheese Monkeys, but it has a great deal of history about his working life. Before reading this book, I really hadn’t spent much time thinking about the people who make the covers for the books I love, but now I never see a book without at least considering it.

I have already told you about Chip Kidd, the book cover designer. I told you that he also writes books. Now I will tell about my favorite of his books, The Cheese Monkeys. This book is about a boy who goes off to college for the first time. He experiences that feeling anyone can relate to of being a new person at a new place who doesn’t know anyone. He has a roommate that he doesn’t particularly like, an experience almost everyone who has lived in a dorm room can relate to. During his first semester he discovers his life’s calling: graphic design. He stumbles upon the major almost on accident and it turns out that he is good at it. The main focus of the novel is his relationship with his graphic art teacher, and the new friends he meets. It is a fantastic book with a story that has real, raw emotion that is touching and really accessible. I fell in love with this book my freshman year when a friend got it for me, and it was really poignant at the time. Even though the main character of the book is completely different than I am, I could still feel for a lot of the situations he ran into in the book. It is a fantastic novel and I highly recommend it.

I have something to admit: I have a very dark sense of humor.  This comes in very handy when reading Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs.  This site isn’t meant for exposing the plots of my favorite books, so I won’t do that.  I just want to get people interested in these books, so I will just talk about the books in a non-spoiler fashion.  Sellevision is a hilarious book about the world of home shopping.  It is about a home shopping type network (fictional, of course) and the people who work there.  It offers a glimpse into each of their lives, none of which are “normal.”  In my own life, I often wonder about the bizarre people I see on QVC and HSN, and this book was so interesting to me because it makes them out to be completely tragic and strange.  One particularly funny part of the book is my favorite.  One of the stars of the network, Peggy Jean Smythe keeps getting hate mail from a viewer.  The viewer is sending the hate mail because he claims that Peggy has a disgusting hairy earlobe that is very distracting when she is modeling earrings for the network.  Hopefully this little tidbit will give you a good impression of the silly and dark humor in Sellevision, and you can’t wait to go pick it up right now.