Today I bought the latest book from Sarah Vowell, "Assassination Vacation." I had not yet read anything written by Vowell, but I'd been interested in her ever since seeing her in "Gigantic," the documentary about They Might Be Giants. She showed up on the Daily Show the other night promoting this new book, and I could not resist the charm of anything that revolves around one woman's hilariously morbid fascination with death and history. Oh, Sarah, could our interests be any closer?

So, after lunch with my mother at Chipotle (The one on Weber, which through careful scientific analysis I have found to be the superior Chipotle), we headed over to the local Borders. I hadn't spent thirty seconds looking at books before a cute, punky girl with dyed hair and piercings asked if I needed help finding something. I was instantly insanely attracted to her, which I am with pretty much any girl that pays any attention to me, and was relieved to hear myself say, "Uh, yeah. Sarah Vowell's new book, 'Assassination Vacation.'" Thank god I wasn't looking for something stupid! Here I was, wearing my one-of-a-kind "USSR" t-shirt (obviously a sign of sophistication), which hopefully was looking awesome on my sculpted pectoral muscles (I had totally done like twenty push-ups the night before out of sheer boredom), and I was looking for a reasonably intelligent book. She led me around the store looking for a couple of minutes, we found the book, and then... Oops! Gotta get my mom to buy the book for me because I'm dead broke. There goes all my awesomeness.

She wasn't that attractive, anyway.

It's just as well, because after reading the first forty-four pages of "Assassination Vacation" I've realized that I'm totally in love with Sarah Vowell. The book details her fascination with America's first three presidential assassinations and her 'pilgrimage' to see all the landmarks memorializing them. I will surely give a full review once I've finished the book, but I can tell you what I've gathered so far: Sarah Vowell is the cleverest person ever. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go read and maybe do some push-ups.

-D

Posted by Dave Hoffman - Post a Comment