O.k. take two! (I had this half done when my stupid laptop decided to auto shut down to do "updates". Needless to say it almost ended up going out the window and into the yard)
So where was I...oh yeah: Irony. Let's talk for a moment about Irony.
Before that however, did you know that February 1865 is the only month in recorded history that did not contain a full moon? This relates nothing to the book or my discussion about irony, but I did want you to a least learn something new for your time and trouble! :)
Oh yeah, back to irony. So this book is a bit out of bounds of my self imposed rules for this adventure. See, I never figured I would read one whole book and definitely not four. As such, with "The Birth of Venus", I ran out of books for the moment. I had plans of making it to the local Goodwill to pick up some more however I had not had the chance yet. This meant I had to go to what I call the "roulette wheel of chance" also known as bookcases in the den.
I go to the bookcases and after saying "no" to Nora Roberts for about the 100th time, I stumble across this autobiography by Alan Alda that seems to have some promise to it. I will get into the book here in a few moments but what I want to talk about is how this book got on the bookcase in the first place. Neither Melissa or I bought it so it did not come from us. If memory serves me correct, I believe someone Melissa knows gave her the book to read thinking one of us may like it. Regardless, It has been sitting on the bookcase since whenever that occurred. Strangely, as I was reading it, I wanted to know more about why we had it in the first place and why no one had read it to this point. This is when I turned the book over to look at the back and guess what I found...
A library inventory sticker from "Pierce County Library". I have no idea where the hell Pierce County is but I found it terribly ironic that after my tirade against the public library system that one of the very next books would be a long term borrow from a library. I laughed and laughed....
Oh, not to be completely ADD but does anyone think I should just make this a blog on blogspot or whatnot? See, my friend won a MAJOR AWARD for her blog (props Cat) and I like winning awards and stuff so I was just wondering.
Oh yeah, the book. The reason why we are here right. Anyway, Alan Alda - for those of you who don't remember, he played Hawkeye on the hit television show M.A.S.H., and that work made him famous. The book chronicles his life from the early days of his mother and father being in vaudeville, through the M.A.S.H. years, and up to his more current work on Scientific American and Broadway plays. In case you are wondering, he is still alive, or so Wikipedia tells me.
Having read my brain numb about physics, 15th century Florence, and Dante - this book was a refreshing change. Not much to think about or judge. Alda writes about his life in a very cerebral and self-deprecating way (much like that of his acting). It was an easy and enjoyable read but I felt that there was something missing. See, I have seen every episode of M.A.S.H. and, I feel like a lot of others, liked the first four or so seasons and then it became serious or drama-esque as I would put it. I didn't like this change and I know as Alan Alda grew in power and influence over the show, he had more opportunities to write and direct the show. As such, I blame him for this shift in television philosophy and have never really forgiven him for that. Essentially I wanted an apology and got none. Nevertheless, he does write well so I give the book:
Vroom, Vroom, Vroom and a wheelie for being a stolen library book (3 Vrooms on the motorcycle scale of awesomeness plus bonus points for its origin).
Now for the future: Next book (as I resolved the Goodwill issue) will be "The Rule of Four" by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. I had "Grapes of Wrath" in my hand but could not pull the trigger just yet on that one because it looked boring and depressing and though I know I should read it, I felt that would have caused this whole exciting adventure to derail. Also, I'm "thinking" about getting a Glenn Beck book because Steve has been all pissed off today at liberals and taxes and I understand that this Glenn Beck fellow is some demigod in the conservative world and I kind of want to understand more. We will see....
Oh, and did you know that most lipstick contains fish scales? Sweet dreams my friends!
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