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rkpress99's review against another edition
DNF. I got about half-way and the four-page footnote about why ice is slippery took me down for the count. Baker is an outstanding writer who describes the everyday and mundane with a fierce poetic aesthetic, but in the end, I don’t like plowing through a book just to say I finished it, no matter how strong the writing.
drossg's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
One time I went to the store with my older brother. The cashier, a girl, asked him, “Did you find everything you need?”
He, handing her exactly what he had come for, replied, “I don’t think so…”
He, handing her exactly what he had come for, replied, “I don’t think so…”
ageorge1877's review against another edition
4.0
Jay Fox dressed as the Devil buying this for me in the bookstore: 'SO YA LIKE BOOKS WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS DO YA!!!???'
This book is a major flex in observation. I love observing the smaller aspects of normal life, but I think if I took it to this guy's level I'd have a panic attack every 20 minutes.
He covers literally, LITERALLY everything about his lunch hour, including a 4 page in depth analysis of why he decided to move his shopping bag from his left hand to his right.
You gotta catch this book in the right frame of mind. Once I tried to read it just before going to bed and I genuinely considered killing myself as an alternative to reading another 3 page long footnote about the history of shoelaces. Other times, when I was fresh and vibey, the charm and subtle cuteness of it really made me smile.
The protagonist is undoubtedly likeable, and tonally he does a great job of spinning it so that, for the most part, it is actually joyful and interesting. Like, yes king tell me more about paper towels.
It's a funny one. You could only fully enjoy this book if you work in an office, but that very same officehood could also be what makes you rip your eyes out and never read another book again. 4 stars.
This book is a major flex in observation. I love observing the smaller aspects of normal life, but I think if I took it to this guy's level I'd have a panic attack every 20 minutes.
He covers literally, LITERALLY everything about his lunch hour, including a 4 page in depth analysis of why he decided to move his shopping bag from his left hand to his right.
You gotta catch this book in the right frame of mind. Once I tried to read it just before going to bed and I genuinely considered killing myself as an alternative to reading another 3 page long footnote about the history of shoelaces. Other times, when I was fresh and vibey, the charm and subtle cuteness of it really made me smile.
The protagonist is undoubtedly likeable, and tonally he does a great job of spinning it so that, for the most part, it is actually joyful and interesting. Like, yes king tell me more about paper towels.
It's a funny one. You could only fully enjoy this book if you work in an office, but that very same officehood could also be what makes you rip your eyes out and never read another book again. 4 stars.
lspargo's review against another edition
4.0
Very funny book. It's super short, and doesn't have much of a plot. The central action of the entire book is a guy riding the escalator up to his office. The rest of the book is just tangents that end of being very funny and make you think about things you don't normally think about.
quillofwords's review against another edition
3.0
From a formatting perspective this was an interesting read, the footnotes take you into the main character's thoughts and branch off into divergent topics from there providing a layered stream of consciousness narrative that was quite fluidly executed. The thing is I could not bring myself to care about the actual contents of the main storyline or the narrator. A lot of waxing poetic about pretty much everything the narrator encounters in the short span of this book that made it quite a tedious read despite the short length of the text. It was objectively well written, but not a narrative I personally enjoy.
mastben11's review against another edition
4.0
At times thoroughly delightful, but the ceaseless gimmick of the whole thing relies on the reader's attention. When that waned for me or when I lacked the mental space to return to the narrator's voice, the book became an exercise in drudgery. The penultimate chapter helped me reconcile these differences, observing attention as an act of meditation and finding wonder in the arbitrariness of CVS layouts or the act of rubbing sock on carpet.
jcmcginn's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
madilynngrace06's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
kintha's review against another edition
3.0
This seems like a book I should have liked a lot. For whatever reason, I found it just okay.