I'm reading faster than I can discuss: Sarah Vowell edition

I have an academic girl crush on Sarah Vowell. We know this. I defend her to people who can't find a way into her writing. I say: listen to her speak and then go back and read, it is way more hilarious that way.

I was all out of Vowell books to read, except for one: Radio On.

For over the last month I have slugged through Radio. I should have loved it. She chronicled a year of radio listening.

I can't really pin point my issue with it though.

Perhaps it was that I only saw spots of Vowell sardonic humor or genius pairing of history with personal experience. Perhaps it was that we have completely different tastes in music and I can't get over it.

The thing is, I really liked parts of it. I liked her discussion of the power of music. I liked her experience / relationship with radio. I liked her critique of the inordinate amount of male voices on radio.

...but still...I had to force myself to finish it before I let myself start Mockingjay (the third of the Hunger Games series).

I know I am on a new crusade of guilt free stopping of books I'm not enjoying, but that was another problem. The narration is diary style, so while I could be bored by one entry, perhaps an amazing and hilarious entry was two pages away.

It was all very taxing.

I still maintain my affection for Vowell, and will continue to read her. Just maybe not stories about the radio anymore.

"The doo-wop stalker love song on a Cincinnati oldies station -- you broke up with me because I was an obnoxious jerk and now you're dating him, so I drive by your house and stare in your window every night, thereby proving that I'm an even bigger creep than you thought."
Sarah like-we-haven't-all-been-there Vowell