Now that's a book

Today's blog posting is dedicated to Betsy Hamilton.

While cleaning out her garage she came across this gem in one of the heavier boxes destined for the landfill. Not wanting to shlep this 30 lbs. monstrosity cross country to NYC, she decided to gift it to me. And boy am I glad she did.

You see Betsy knows of my early teenage love affair with the National Lampoon. Some kids are inspired by rock stars and then lazily take up the guitar, hoping to one day sport glittered pants bathed by multicolored stage lights and cheesy pyrotechnics.

Other kids dissect a frog and decide, "I'd like to cut open people," and become doctors and surgeons.

Me? I'd spend my newspaper route delivery money at the magazine stand and soak up every monthly edition of NatLamp.

So much so that against my parent's wishes, who saw me excelling in Accountancy or Banking, I aspired to a career writing satire.

It didn't work out that way, having been detoured by a formerly lucrative career in advertising and putting food on the table for my family. But in an odd twist of fate, and a president who produces fodder on an hourly basis, I'm getting closer to those goals now than I ever had before.

Not surprisingly the book has been keeping me occupied for hours.

You can keep your classics. I've got no time for Homer and the Iliad, not when I can read the fascinating tale of a modern-day Robinson Crusoe who found peace and seclusion on a small, uncharted tropical isle.

Here, we see the man's hygiene being attended to by his faithful native companion, a man he has dubbed Freitag.

The book is chock full of great, detailed and incredibly crafted stories just like this one. And when the eyes get weary and the reading too taxing, there are dozens of sick, twisted, my-cup-of-tea cartoons scattered throughout.

It's funny, cutting and dark as hell. 

I highly recommend you have a friend gift you a copy.

However, if you do buy one book this year, make sure you buy this one.

Actually, you should buy two books this year.

You must have seen that coming.