reading

I read two books in two days!

Okay, not that exciting, I used to do at least a book a day for days on end (my last period of unemployment, in particular). And one of the books is my favorite book, which I've read so often that it's more like a comforting ritual more than actually reading. But it's still an achievement, I don't think I've read anything in months. The last thing I can remember is about 75% of a not very good Michael Crichton novel. The store just somehow beat reading out of me... it's not like how people who work in a restaurant begin to hate the food because they smell it all day. More like the fact that there were ALL these awesome books around to read so I had a running list in my mind, which made me feel like I had to read faster (which is stupid, I already read about as fast as any non "speed-reader" can) which just made me distracted and not enjoy the book I was reading until I just stopped reading nearly altogether. So it's nice to be sort of back.

Anyway, I'm beginning to notice a pattern in what I like. I used to confine myself to SF/Fantasy (and for whatever reason, Amy Tan & Nick Hornby). Then like I mentioned, during unemployment my quest for cheap, plentiful reading material led me to the Normal Public Library, which has a shitty SF section. Really, aside from a few authors (Crichton, who occasionally branches out from SF, Vonnegut who is SF but so good he trancends genre, Amy Tan, Nick Hornby) I've learned to be suspicious of general fiction. I'm not a fan of old literature, if it's not been written in the last 50 years I am usually unimpressed. And so much modern fiction... just goes absolutely nowhere and is depressing. So I like "modern classics" such as Vonnegut, Catcher in the Rye, the Great Gatsby, etc. And I have found the occaisional author through reccomends or by accident (Christopher Moore, I love you, you magnificent bastard! You too, Time Traveler's Wife, the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Augusten Burroughs when you are writing funny anecdotes but not your heavier debut memoir Running With Scissors!). But mostly, reading the back of books like you would in a genre section is a total crap shoot. Anything that sounds interesting or even uplifting is inevitably depressing. Why is gen lit such a downer category of books? But this branching out continued as I worked in the store, I kept hearing about good books from coworkers, or noticing something interesting when shelving. Also I thought it would help me with reccomends, being good at knowing genre books (at least SF) sucks because no one ever asks. Because if the people like SF, they already know what they like and don't ask. Whereas I always get asked about how good books are that I wouldn't know (computer books, foreign language books) or to just randomly reccomend "something that would be good to read on the beach."

Oh but anyway, the pattern. This latest book I just read is called Cabin Pressure. To be honest, it was laying around in this box of free books in the break room one day and I was bored and picked it up. The first sentence was, "a douchebag says "what"?" and I was like, "sold!" But then didn't get around to reading it ever. Because of all the many other free books I've picked up at the store, only one other has ever turned out to be any good. It's a memoir of this guy who went back to his old summer camp and became a counselor. So... it'd be pretty boring if he was a shitty writer, but it was amusing so I liked it. And I just realized that it's like "Julie/Julia," another book I also read on accident and love. And Augusten Burroughs' "Magical Thinking." And Nick Hornby's nonfiction stuff. Basically just random blathering about slightly not ordinary things made interesting by the fact that the person is a great storyteller. So no wrenching emotional turns (that's why I'm not as big of a fan of Augusten's more famous Running With Scissors) or stupid contrived plots, and some bits that actually made me laugh out loud. Seriously, Julie/Julia does not sell that well even though from what I understand it's a critical darling, mostly because we have it stuck away in "food reference." But when describing it to people who want some interesting light reading it's my easiest sell, followed by Magical Thinking. So anyway I'm wondering if there's a title for this type of genre, and where I could find more?

Also I wanted to plug the book if anyone's interested, since I doubt this dude's all that popular. It's called "Cabin Pressure," by Josh Wolk. According to the "about the author" (and a couple references in the book) he's a writer for Entertainment Weekly. So I think this is his first book, but the fact that he has written before shows.

Here's one of the bits that made me laugh out loud, concerning this crazy driving instructor who keeps mixing up stuff from 'Nam into the car safety lecture:

"I was confused. An oncoming minivan can kick you in the larynx? I didn't know Dodge Caravans could do that. Well, if I ever did get my ass kicked by a minivan, I hoped it would kill me. I'd seen The Deer Hunter: I didn't want to get dragged back to its camp and made to play Russian roulette with a bunch of scared Priuses."