Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

This book was a favorite of mine in airports; as I've been spending more time at these places over the last couple years, Sh*t My Dad Says was a perfect book to kill a few minutes with at the airport with its three or four page stories neatly wrapped up with funny quotes at the end of each story for various situations from Halpern's father.

However, I discovered one of my co-workers had the book in his possession and was kind enough to send it my way, so at the beginning of this week I began reading it in earnest, from front to back cover. It is the perfect book for little snippets-it began the week with me in the car, handy for the wait when I waited to pick up Marianella from work. Mid-week it entered into the apartment and over the past couple days I devoured it. I did so more because I wanted to move onto some reading material that's stacking up at the place, rather than because I just couldn't put it down. Don't get me wrong-I enjoyed it, but its thin contents (it checks in just shy of 200 pages) were plenty. Its ideal for the car, the airport, the doctor's office, that type of environment, because reading the book for long stretches just seems to stack the profane tales of Halpern's dad one on top of the other.

Now, the Dad who says the sh*t is a great character; I found myself laughing or broadly smiling at some point with each story and actually was surprised to find the father to be quite the educated and loving father, despite the constant stream of profanities spilling from his mouth. And while the stories do get a bit tedious in the middle, the last three stories are all wonderful-poignant and funny. I think its due in large part to the fact that the author is now an adult and you can see the love shine through between father and son.

I know the book has been spun into a TV sitcom with William Shatner as the Dad-frankly, from the commercials I see, it doesn't lure me in at all. It's a product that seems to be best digested in small snippets with the authentic language of the Dad rather than shoved into a twenty-two minute, watered-down sitcom, but perhaps I'm wrong.