24-Hour Read-a-Thon: Post 1

For Read-a-Thon information, see The Hidden Side of a Leaf. For my own Read-a-Thon posts, see the deblog's Read-a-Thon category archive.

Currently reading: Peter Sagal, The Book of Vice: Naughty Things (And How to Do Them)

Pages read: 21 (since last post) | 21 (total for Read-a-Thon)
Time spent reading: 27 minutes (since last post) | 27 (total for Read-a-Thon)

Why am I reading this book? You know how when Homer Simpson sees a donut he kind of drools and his eyes glaze over and he says something like, "Mmmm, donut...." Right. Well, that was me more or less when I heard about this book. Peter Sagal is the host of NPR's news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! It's been on for some years, I gather, but I only started listening to it a few months ago. I'd catch it in the car while driving daughter number one around Saturday mornings. I'd catch bits of it. It appealed to me, a lot. Probably part of that is that it's on the radio: I think that sparks our imagination in a way television cannot. Part of if is that it's this group--the guests change--of witty, smart people ad libing about current events. It harkens back to a different world. Well, specifically this world, one in which a game show could count on having a literate audience. Also, the fact that I only caught it in bits and pieces somehow made the show even more appealing. It brought me back to those early teenage years when, alone in my room, I'd catch things on the radio (Garrison Keillor) that seemed outside the normal experience of my age group--more intelligent, more interesting.

Okay, so the other day I'm driving to the post office and I catch an interview with Peter Sagal on NPR. I didn't know for sure it was him at first. His voice is distinctive. His voice is marvelous. And it sure sounded like him, so I was delighted to find out it was. And it turns out he'd written a book about, of all things, vice. He's talking about being this vanilla guy visiting sex clubs with his wife to research the book.

I was more than sold. I think I gurgled. I mean, this book would appeal to me even if Peter Sagal hadn't written it, but he's whip smart and clever, so I was really excited about getting a copy.

It got here yesterday.

Comments: I've read the Author's Note and the Introduction so far, and have already laughed aloud several times, starting on page one (well, actually page ix). He's writing here about Marv Albert:

"I felt some sympathy for him. Not for his strange appetites--I can't even bring myself to bite ice cream, let alone a forty-two-year-old woman to whom I am not married--but for what I imagined was going on in his head."

Sagal goes on in his introduction to discuss, wittily and well, the "three essential elements of vices, as they have traditionally been described by me once I stopped to think about it a little while ago...." These turn out to be: social disapprobation, actual pleasure, and shame.

Next up: The first chapter: "Swinging, or Dinner Parties Gone Horribly Wrong."

Comments

[3m]

Hope you enjoy your reading today!

[Literary Feline]

Sounds like a way to start for the read-a-thon! Happy reading!

[Chris]

Sounds like an interesting book. I'm impressed by your long post during the Read-a-thon! Keep up the great reading

Cheerleader Chris

[dew]

Well that ought to keep you engaged! You gave me an idea. I'm going to add to my post-read-a-thon survey a question asking people to list high-interest books they recommend for next year's read-a-thon!

[Lissa]

Sounds like you found a book you are really into. The time should go fast! :D