One More Thing: Stories & Other Stories

One More Thing: Stories & Other Stories
by B.J. Novak, 276 pages

I'm not typically a reader of short stories, though if intriguing enough, I will. The author is from "The Office" but I've only watched a handful of  episodes, so that wasn't enough of a draw. This book got great reviews, though and it's been circulating well since we received it, so I decided I'd give it a go. I started out listening to this on audio, because it was another lovely humor writer reading his own work, and this one also has guest readers, such as Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham. Unfortunately, my checkout expired before I got through it and someone else was waiting, so I had to let it go. I finished it up reading the actual book, but I still plan to go back and listen to the portion I didn't finish. This book was that good.
The stories in this are not typical short stories. They are also not anecdotal ones, such as the likes of Augusten Burroughs or David Sedaris. This is just Novak showing us a bit of his warped sense of humor, short story style. Some are just a line or two. I don't think any were more than 20 pages.
This book was laugh out loud funny, you get to know Mr. Novak a little, as some stories were clearly based on parts of his life, and these are off the beaten path enough without being too weird. The book does contain a good amount of profanity (lots of f-bombs), so I wouldn't recommend it to the very young or the very old (unless your grandma likes this sort of thing).
Highlights:
 Julie & the Warlord: a young woman is on a date with a man she met online. Who is he? A merciless warlord from a 3rd world country. This story is just their dialogue, as they sit at a restaurant, eventually ordering chocolate cake for dessert.
The Man Who Invented the Calendar : suffice it to say, we could have ended up with 1000 day, 25 month years.
And probably my favorite of the whole book,  
Pick a Lane, which shows us the all too familiar scenario of one driver swerving between lanes, while another experiences road rage and continuously screams, "pick a lane!" You get inside the head of the person swerving, who, it turns out, really just can't decide which lane to drive in, as they both offer reasons to drive in them. I cannot count the number of times I've been that raged out person, screaming "pick a lane!" inside my car.
This is a quick, funny read for anyone who likes humor with a bit of the profane, and it's definitely worth checking out on audio.