Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 2/14/2016 + 1223 more book reviews

I happened upon this book at a thrift shop and snapped it up when I saw it was written by Mary Roach. I didn't realize that she had written a humorous column for Reader's Digest. I have read a couple of her other books including Bonk, a funny and in depth look at sex and science, and have some others on my to-read shelf.

My Planet is a collection of her writings from Reader's Digest consisting of 60 or so 2 and a half page vignettes of the humor in her everyday experiences. I could relate to almost all of these: many were about communications between her and her husband, Ed; others about growing older; or about any of many of life's annoyances. These included discussions on hygiene, shopping, dentists, sleeping, road trips, getting bifocals, etc. It was funny that I tended to have a lot of the same traits as Ms. Roach, while my wife has a lot of the characteristics of her husband, Ed. For example, Ed is a germaphobe like my wife, while I tend not to notice or care about possible bacteria. From the book: "Ed confessed he didn't like me using his bathrobe because I'd wear it while sitting on the toilet. 'It's not like it goes in the water,' I protested, though if you counted the sash as part of the robe, this wasn't strictly true. 'Doesn't matter,' Ed said. Ed has a theory that anything that touches the toilet...is unclean and subject to the sanitary laws of Leviticus." Another example is that Ed can't sleep at night if there is any light--even from the alarm clock, so he puts his head between two pillows. This is definitely my wife!

This is a fun book to read in spare moments where each short vignette can be read in a few minutes. I would recommend this one for that reason and for the many chuckles it provided.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details