Recommended Reading

For those of you who know me, you know that I hate to read. For me, "reading for pleasure" is as much of an oxymoron as "compassionate conservative," "good handjob," or "Cubs win." Call it laziness. Call it ADD. Call it a side effect of having to read through hundreds of meaningless pages of cases, statutes, documents, and correspondence each godawful day at my job. Nonetheless, I recently began to read books on the L to and from work, so that I would have something to do other than stare at the same buildings and leer vexatiously at people talking on their cell phones.

After slowly but surely making my way through Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, and creeping out my fellow Brown Line riders in the process, I was in search of something else to fill the void. Upon the recommendation of Ryan "Pissed Off" Christoff and Greg "Gregerson" Peterson, this past Sunday I bought I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. Over the past two days, I've already read half of the book's 270+ pages. This pace may not seem blinding for many of you, but please consider that this is only the second book I've read for pleasure in the past 15 years. Also, I had to go to Geneva (Illinois, not Switzerland) the past two days for court hearings, and the book helped me pass the time while waiting for the judge to call my case. (By the way, for the hour and a half it took to drive each way and the several hours total I spent waiting for my respective cases to be called both days, I spent a grand, two-day total of 90 seconds in front of the judge. Luckily for the client, it gets billed for travel time and waiting time, so that 90 seconds comes to at least a cool 9 hours.)

But back to the book. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is scathingly hysterical. It's definitely male-oriented, as it recounts many of the author's drunken encounters with the opposite sex, although women with a good (read: open-minded) sense of humor will appreciate it as well. The description on the back of the book says it all:

"My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way: I share my adventures with the world."

Max is a very good writer (University of Chicago undergrad and Duke law school), which certainly helps the readability. Any drunk idiot with a pen can write "I got drunk in Austin and my buddy got arrested," but Max makes what could have been mundane stories into hilarious stories that nearly any guy can relate to. Several times I've found myself laughing out loud while reading it, which is fine on the L, but not such a good thing in Judge Colwell's courtroom. If you are easily offended, don't read it. Then again, if you are easily offended, you probably wouldn't be reading GMYH. If you have a sick, dark, yet reasonably intelligent sense of humor like I do, then you will love it. Anyway, check it out.