Sometimes it seems like every standup comedian worth his or her salt just has to do the book thing, and you might feel that yet another warmed-over stage routine is the last thing you need taking up valuable bookshelf space. Jon Stewart's book will come as an extremely pleasant surprise. He eschews the standard standup patter and instead gives us 18 short comic essays in a variety of styles that recall the prose work of Woody Allen, only with a few more references to genitals. Stewart proves himself a remarkably nimble humorist with a sharp eye for parody, whether he's writing "A Very Hanson Christmas" or "Adolf Hitler: The Larry King Interview."

HITLER: ...Larry, look, I was a bad guy. No question. I hate that Hitler. The yelling, the finger pointing, I don't know ... I was a very angry guy.

KING: And this ... new Hitler?

HITLER: I get up at seven, have half a melon, do the jumble in the morning paper and then let the day take me where it will.... Me!! The inventor of the Blitzkrieg... When you stop having to control everything it's very freeing.

Stewart is not afraid to flirt with bad taste, in fact, some of the pieces in this collection do for "flirting with bad taste" what Bill Clinton did for "not having sexual relations." But it's wonderful to see an edgy comedian taking on the traditionally cozy genre of the humorous essay, creating work that combines the wit of Robert Benchley with the energy and attitude of the best modern standup. Naked Pictures of Famous People proves that Jon Stewart is as comfortable, and accomplished, in front of a word processor as he is in front of an audience.

Not sure what I was expecting to read when I opened this book. The chapters are short enough to have kept me going, but even then I found myself skipping many pages. This was not due to lack of intelligent, humorous writing but due to "old" celebrities. What do I care about a Kennedy or President Ford?
The chapters that I enjoyed most were: Pen Pals, the last supper and the Adolf Hitler one. Stewart saved the best for last, where he lists Microsoft Word suggested spelling. I was laughing out loud reading this.

The book is now available for trade.

reserved for an international ray.

I do enjoy both kinds of ratings, the *rating and the words. Please feel free to use both opportunities.
Please journal the book on arrival,when finished reading and when you mail it off to the next person in line.

The mailingorder might change due to mailingpreferences.


#01 Plum_crazy (UK - prefers to mail within Europe)
#02 LeishaCamden (Norway - no preferences)
#03 synical (Malaysia - no preferences)
#04 janey-canuck (CANADA - prefers to mail North America)
#05 prollacct (USA - prefers to mail US only)
#06 genielady (USA - prefers to mail US only)
#07 thescreaming (USA - prefers to mail US only)
#08

RELEASE NOTES:

In the spirit of raying it forward please enjoy this book and keep it moving!

It's arrived - but as is the way with bookrings, 2 others also arrived earlier this week :o)

Still this looks like it's the sort of book that can be dipped in and out of so I'll try to have it moving again by the end of the month.

I finished this book sooner than expected. Partly because it has short easy chapters & partly, because like Annadlx I did find my self skipping bits.
I didn't know some of the names in the book but maybe I'm just ignorant...should I know Sheldon Stein? Well, even though I don't (sorry, Sheldon!) that chapter, Revenge is a dish best served cold amused me.
I also liked The Devil & Bill Gates & the Last Supper.

However, Martha Stewart's Vagina & Da Vinci's Notebook were ones where I found myself skipping bits (I found the writing in the Notebook hard to read....must be old age creeping up on me!). The Recipe I just didn't get!

Anyhow, the bit's I did like made me laugh & I've PM'd LeishaCamden so it will be on it's way again shortly. It's now also part of the 2008 KEEP THEM MOVING CHALLENGE (#42)

Just one question....where were the naked pictures? ;o)

Book arrived today! Right now a friend of mine is reading parts of it, she's visiting and immediately snapped it up ... :-) I will read this as soon as I can, but as usual I have a couple (ahem) of rings & rays in the house already ... :-) I'll journal again when I've read the book. Thanks for sharing!!

I started reading this today. Have read about 70 pages so far - it's a quick and easy read. Not (so far anyway) laugh-out-loud funny, but certainly entertaining.

I'll journal again when I've finished the book.

I finished this book yesterday. Now how to politely phrase my less-than-stellar review ...

To put it simply, I was disappointed by this book. Basically because I think Jon Stewart is so incredibly funny on The Daily Show and I expected this book would be on the same level ... but far from it, unfortunately. The book is well enough written but, for my money anyway, it isn't very, well, funny. The only thing that had me chuckling was the Word/Windows 'corrections' list at the end. So for me, this book was ... entertaining as a kind of light summer read type of thing (I've read it while lying in the sun on my balcony :-) but it falls far short of its promise.

Now to try to explain why it isn't that funny. Oy vey. I'm not sure I can explain it. Humor is such a personal thing. But I just think that ... satire is difficult, and in order to pull it off you need to really understand the thing that you're satirizing. And Stewart just doesn't, in this book. (Or if he does, he hides it well.) The Hitler interview, as an example. He hasn't written a supposed interview with the real Adolf Hitler. He's created a character who IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER resembles the historical person that he purports to be, but simply has the same name. And then I'm supposed to laugh at how weird it would be if Hitler had really done this?? Sorry, but NO.

Basically everyone in this book is a modern day American, with modern day American values. The da Vinci notebook thing I actally felt was offensive (not to mention pretty ignorant since it's common knowledge that da Vinci wrote all his notes in reverse). This book was like a Hollywood/Disney movie about European history - mostly full of holes and lacking in credibility since its creator apparently assumes that everyone at all times have had the values and perceptions that Americans of the late 20th/early 21st century have. I had thought that Stewart was a little smarter than that, actually. The idea that Leonardo da Vinci would have wasted his time inventing a beer hat and then thought himself very clever isn't funny, it's just ridiculous, and shows a lack of understanding of the historical da Vinci.

I am sounding SO anal and humorless right now ... !! :-D I'm sorry, I'm not always like that ... and I hope I won't be ruining this book for anyone ... it isn't as bad as I make it sound, it's just that I expected better things from Stewart. He seems to generally be aware that there is a wider world out here. And that there is a past in which people were not as we are now, and did not think as we do now. I guess he must be pandering to an American audience.

But it was still interesting to read this book, so thanks for that, Annadlx!! Good luck to future readers. :-) I've already PMed synical for their address so I should have the book moving again soon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Finally this book is on its way to synical in Malaysia. It's travelling with two other books and a couple of other goodies. Happy trails, little book!! :-)

Just to let everyone know that I've got the book!

Thanks LeishaCamden!

Will journal again when I'm done (which I think will be pretty soon because it looks like a quick read).

The first couple of essays with the dead presidents - glazed over them as I'm not all that familiar with them. Nearly put me to sleep, which didn't help.

It's only the pieces after that which caught my attention - because it's the figures that I know of, like the late Princess Diana, Mother Theresa and Hitler. Liked some of the pieces that the other readers have mentioned.

The Recipe's pretty hilarious - might have something to do with Jon Stewart's hosting gigs...... Okay, I should stop.

I've no idea if I should care who Sheldon Stein is, also. (Googling doesn't really help).

The book might be a little culturally biased for non-Americans, but I liked it enough.

I've already PM-ed janey-canuck for her address (and gotten a reply) and will send it out this weekend.

Mailed it out already, it's en-route.

Received in the mail today with some lovely postcards! Will get to this ASAP, I suspect I'll have it done by the end of next week.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I mailed this off today. It took a little longer than I anticipated as I ended up reading it outloud with my exclusive dating person. We finished it off last weekend but I had a bit of a "life-gets-in-the-way" week and only got it out today so it's going via airmail.

The book was fantastic! Absolutely hilarious, I particularly enjoyed the cult story and the Hanson story.

Received today and will begin immediately since I just finished a book yesterday. Quite a bit of mixed reviews and I'm not a fan of his show so I'm curious to see what I think. Looks like an easy read that I can pick up and drop off at easily. Will pm for next address due to the size of the book.

I appreciate being part of this ring but found this book to be a total bore. A few of the stories had a few lip curling moments but that was it. I thought I would finish this quickly but found I'd rather scrub the bathroom than curl up and read even for 5 minutes. I read all but 3 of the stories and gave it as fair a shot as I could. I already have the next address so I'll pick up a mailing envelope this afternoon.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

In the post

Sorry I didn't post before this - the book got put underneath some of my husband's books, and I forgot totally about it. But now that I've looked at it, I must agree that Jon Stewart's subtle humor doesn't translate into print. I think I'll stick to watching him on TV. Contacting thescreaming to see if they still want it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed off to thescreaming - enjoy!

This arrived in the mail on Wednesday, I would have journalled then but I've been massively ill. Can't wait to read it!

I tried really hard to read and enjoy this book, but I just couldn't. Maybe if I had read it 11 years ago when it was first published I would have liked, but I'm not sure.

I will find someone to pass this along to as soon as I can, not sure how quickly I can get it sent out though.