Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 2/14/2016 + 1185 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.

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