List of books I read over my vacation

I'm back from Des Moines, Iowa! While I was there, I spent some time enjoying my two favorite afternoon pastimes: sitting at well-equipped pubs and reading books.

Local wheat beer, Legends American Grill, Pleasant Hill, Iowa



Tap wall at El Bait Shop, Des Moines, Iowa

Here's a summary of the books I read:

• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams

  It's been awhile since I've read this book, so I completely forgot about it. Hooray memory! A good, fun read. Not one of Adams' stronger works, in my opinion, but still quite good.

• Trigonometry Demystified, Stan Gibilisco

  I skimmed this book quickly just so that I have a working idea of trigonometry beyond the afternoons-worth of right-angle trig I learned this summer. If I wasn't paying thousands of dollars to officially learn this stuff over the next couple of years, I'd probably consider this book.

• America (The Book), Jon Stewart

  Hilarious. Everyone in my age group should probably give this a read, especially now that we're old enough to realize exactly how shitty and fluffy our social studies textbooks were. Special surprise on page 99.

• Great Tales of Classic Science Fiction, compilation

  This shit'll give you nightmares. Good stuff. 1930's era novellas which are grounded in realism yet all have funky twists.

• The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Bobby Henderson

  Another good read. Fairly disjointed, but then again, so is the Bible and so are most books inspired by Internet memes. Some good rules to live by in here. Ramen.

• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken

  Didn't make it all the way through this book, but it seemed to be turning into a pile of "Ha ha! Conservative figurehead is a moron because X, Y, and Z, and they're portraying a double standard because of A, B, and C!", which gets boring and depressing, especially considering it's pre-2004.

I drove about 2,200 miles, burned through about 50 gallons of gasoline, and got to experiment with some new swear words while driving through Chicago and Cleveland. All in all, a great trip. Thanks to Nick, his colleague whose name I forgot yet whose balcony I tarnished, Chris and D, my parents and their friends, and whoever else I saw but am forgetting to mention here for the good times and other miscellany.