Book Talk: One More Thing

I'm probably one of very few people in the western world who has not seen a single episode of The Office.

That being said, I recognized B. J. Novak's name immediately - if only by association with one of my recent comedic faves - Mindy Kaling. I loved her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns) and thought if B. J. Novak had a similar vibe, I'd love his stories just as much. I didn't.

Picking up B. J. Novak's book of short stories directly after finishing Hilary Mantel's book of short stories was probably a mistake - I think I'm a little short storied out at the moment. Still, I don't think I would have raved about this collection if I had read it another time.

There's nothing bad about the collection - it's funny, and largely relies on the shock value of endings that you don't expect - but it didn't leave me with a lingering positive impression.

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook - the production was fantastic, with B. J. Novak, Rainn Wilson, and Mindy Kaling, among others, voicing various characters, but beyond that? Not much stuck. I knew after finishing the collection that it wasn't a book I would remember strongly enough to recommend to someone.

I always feel extremely uncomfortable about writing about books in a way that could be considered negative - I recognize that those books are the culmination of a great deal of work by the author and that there are people out there who enjoy their work very much, and while I don't want to take away from that in any way, I do want to be truthful in my reflections about my experience reading them.