something else i should mention/endorse: i just finished barrel fever by david sedaris, and it was a lot of fun. if nothing else, borrow a copy from your friend, or just go to the bookstore and sit down and read the last story in this book, “santaland diaries”. it’s completely hysterical. the book as a whole is very good and i respect david sedaris a lot, so you should really buy the whole thing, but that one particularly cracked me up. it’s about his stint working as an elf around christmastime helping the santa at macy’s in new york. some really funny stuff.

now i’ve picked up a “best of” collection from the sex/advice column savage love, which is pretty entertaining even if it’s not necessarily literature. the guy is good at being abrasive and clever while still giving pretty appropriate advice though. and there are some pretty weird things that he gets asked questions about . . . i’ll let you find out for yourself. if you want a sample of the column, it also runs in its normal weekly form on the onion (in the “av club” section) among other places.