55 Books in a Year: Book #25 I Just Want My Pants Back

For my birthday we, a bunch of my friends and I, went out to eat in Springfield, and because it was my birthday we ended our lovely dinner of various fondues with a trip to the bookstore; Barnes and Noble to be exact. The husband took the kiddo to the play area (sometimes he can be nice and thoughtful) and I spent some quality time amongst the shelves. Of all the books that caught my eye that evening I Just Want My Pants Back caught my attention the most. I found a comfy seat and started reading it on my Nook, immediately I was entertained by the male voice (a character who reminded me a little of the guy in Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State and a little like the guy in The F***-Up with a hint of the chick in Diary of an Emotional Idiot) and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I read about 70 pages before my friends and my husband and my kid found me.

This, of course, left me no choice, but to download the book (BN knew what they were doing when they allow people to start reading books for free...) and finish it, which I did the next day.

This book is chock full of pop culture references. There are so many that I could relate to that I had to look up the year the book was published, 2007, and, noted that David was definitely Millennial and all those books that said people born during 1976 were tail-end Gen X or old-ish Gen Y were closer to being right than I thought. That's all I could think about as I read this book...that, while I definitely didn't booze it up or do drugs or sleep with strangers at all, I totally knew this guy. I totally got how he was feeling and remembered when I felt behind everyone else my age. Actually, if I allow myself to think about it, I still do. He was reminiscing about the same lost youth/opportunities/friends et cetera...it was pretty sobering.

And, who knew that a book about a guy who gives away his favorite pair of pants during a hook-up, a book about a guy who goes out of his way to figure out ways to avoid talking to his good Mid-Western parents, a book about a guy who loses his temp job, almost messes up his friends' wedding (by the way I know people who definitely took their wedding a wee-bit too serious, much like this faux-yuppie couple), cusses, pops pills and gets so drunk and strung out that he throws up in a taxi could be sobering?

Anyway, I digress. This book was a lot of fun.While it is definitely not as well-written as Generation X: Tales for an Acclerated Culture and definitely won't define a whole generation of lost souls, I can totally see how it has described an era and a time that, whether I want to believe it or not, is long gone.

I guess there's a show on MTV, but I probably don't have to tell you hipcats that...maybe I'll watch it (just read that MTV canceled it so that means it must be good!), maybe I'll just revel in the fact that this book is a little bit like me and those I have known and leave it at that.