Reading May Cause Boredom
I like to read funny people’s memoirs. Not only does it give me a new perspective on life, it also helps me come up with ideas of things to write about on here. It doesn’t hurt to laugh at others’ mistakes while contemplating funny incidents of your own. While I can’t remember them all, I know that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading Ellen DeGeneres, Laurie Notaro and Diane Von Furstenberg. They were poignant, well-written, funny and had great life lessons.
Once I pick up a memoir, I typically can’t put it down - but tonight, I trudged through Last Call at the 7-Eleven by Kevin Cowherd. The title and the author’s name amused me enough at the library, and it was near the Nora Ephron book I Feel Bad About My Neck, which I loved, so I thought I would give it a try.
The book is a collection of articles that Kevin wrote for a newspaper, somewhere on the east coast. My not knowing the paper’s name or city is the first reflection that I was losing interest. What lost me shortly after was the dated-ness of the writing. In nearly every post he mentioned 1994, Bill Clinton and a variety of early 90’s actors and TV shows that I’m not familiar with. I can see how watching reruns of talk shows from years past could have this same effect, since they talk about current events for nearly 1/3 of their shows. Was I simply “too young” for the humor in this book?
I was in 3rd grade in 1994, more interested in recess, Barbies and figuring out my retainer than I knew about the President at the time. Michael Bonner used to drive me insane in class and I felt anxiety for waiting in the lunch line for just a small carton of milk every day, because I brought my lunch. Additionally, my friend Megan was moving to Virginia and I was attempting to generate the longest list of homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently!) for a class contest - so I had more important things on my mind. I’m sure his column was well-received back then, but it’s just not as relevant today. Relevancy is key for a society that moves faster than a text message. By the time I finish posting this, it may be irrelevant.
I found myself wishing he would get to the point, and that he was stating the obvious. In a short piece about phone pet-peeves, he talked about people who don’t talk into the speaker, children answering the phone and… I don’t even remember the rest. Then I remembered that I control my destiny, so I closed the book and put it in the “return” stack on my desk. Sorry, Kevin. The book made me hope that none of you reading this blog feel that way! While I know that life isn’t always humorous, it is surprising, and that’s an element I hope to keep alive as I write. Yikes, look behind you!
Just kidding.
