I’m two weeks and eight reviews behind — help!
“In the aftermath of an athletic humiliation on an unprecedented scale—a loss to a tortoise in a footrace so staggering that, his tormenters teased, it would not only live on in the record books, but would transcend sport itself, and be taught to children around the world in textbooks and bedtime stories for centuries; that hundreds of years from now, children who had never heard of a “tortoise” would learn that it was basically a fancy type of turtle from hearing about this very race—the hare retreated, understandably, into a substantial period of depression and self-doubt.”
B. J. Novak (yes, Ryan from The Office) wrote this collection of short stories, which I listened to as an audiobook. It’s pretty hit or miss, but some of the stories are definitely worth reading. It reminded me of watching SNL skits — some of them were short, funny and hit the punchline perfectly. Others dragged on way too long, or couldn’t quite hit the right note. I did like the short little musings — they seemed almost like reading a Twitter account.
“I was sad that summer was over. But I was happy that it was over for my enemies, too.”
And some of the longer stories – Julie and the Warlord was a favorite, as well as the retelling of The Tortoise and the Hare that he opened with– were good, too. I would recommend reading the paperback instead of an audiobook so that you could skip the ones that begin to drag on. I was psyched for the audio version because some of the stories were read by guest stars, but I don’t think it really made a big difference.