My American ADD-induced non-reading spell has finally been broken by the hilarious writing of Beth Lisick in her 2005 NY Times best-selling book of autobiographical sketches Everybody Into the Pool.

WHY DIDN'T YOU GUYS TELL ME ABOUT HER SOONER! DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE?



Here's a little sample of her style & humor:

"When I went away to college, all it took was reading some pamphlets on how industrial hemp was a viable natural resource and fountainhead of sustainable energy for me to decide that I was probably bisexual."

Here she is talking about being around her wealthy, highly successful advertising exec brother and his wife:

I'm particularly intrigued by my own physical changes in their presence. How strange that my BO gets worse when I'm around them. My teeth more yellowed, my skin more blotchy....This is what happens with prolonged exposure to the alpha-groomed, those people who transform everyone around them into beings more stippled, flaky, toxic, hunched. My T-zone has never been as oily as it is under the alabaster sconces that hang from their eighteen-foot ceiling. In their presence, I can almost hear my gums receding."

From the back cover cuz I'm tarred: Beth Lisick has been an integral and high-profile member of San Francisco's art community for the past ten years. She is a contributor to public radio's This American Life, a spoken word performer, a sketch comedian, a musician, an independent film actor, and the curator of a successful storytelling series.

She has a new book out, Helping Me Help Myself. Which I should probably learn to do since YOU GUYS aren't helping me out!