Owl Essays

What do Thai food, jazz music, CPA's, and owls have in common? Not a lot, usually, unless you're talking about the book club Leslie and I recently became a part of.

Shortly after the holidays one of Leslie's friends started talking about forming a book club with us, some of their other Purdue friends, and friends from work (an accounting firm). It sounded like fun and, since it only meets once a month, a time commitment we could actually make work. So we joined and our first meeting was at the end of February at La Margarita. We all hung out, ate tasty Mexican food, and picked a book to read - Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris. A month later we met at Bangkok Restaurant and Jazz Bar to eat Thai food, relax to smooth jazz music, talk about trivia from the 90's, and discuss the book (my third of the year).

Book Club Group Shot!

Delicious Thai Dumplings Appetizer

Live Music 

The book is a series of essays, intentionally disjointed yet somehow cohesive. His humor is unique. One minute you're reading along, just minding your own business, and suddenly you brush past a joke almost without realizing it. The whole book is that way... not overtly funny, the humor just sort of sneaks up on you. A lot of the essays change direction part way through as well. You can be reading a section that starts off talking about him taking up swimming again, swings to examples of how his father never really showed any pride in him as a child, and then brings it all together in the end. But that's only if you're lucky. Some sections are just the start of an idea and then a tangent. I found that to be engaging - always leaving me wanting to read on to see where he was going next - rather than confusing or annoying. Every new chapter was something different with little more than an occasional glance back at a previous story. And I liked that. Or at least the restless side of me, the one always itching for something different, found that compelling.

But my thoughtful half, the one that likes things just so and never wants to do anything uncomfortable, found plenty to appreciate as well. There are a couple of chapters that bring up some good, thought provoking issues. My favorite of these is one where he's talking with a woman in Australia and she asked him to picture a four-burner stove. The idea is that each burner stands for something - your family, your friends, your career, and your health. She says that in order to be successful you need to cut off one of your burners, and to be really successful you need to cut off two. This got me thinking. Do I value success enough to cut out a chunk of my life like that? Or am I already switching off burners? What do I even equate with success? And, if I had to choose one to cut off, what would I give up?

I did enjoy the book, though it has pretty much nothing to do with diabetes or owls. It's an easy read with short chapters that go by quickly and easily slide you into the next. His anecdotal humor made me smile at times and laugh audibly at others. Owls is a good mix of the serious and the lighthearted, the emotional and the educational. While it is probably not for everyone, it is worth a read if you enjoy people's stories. But if you're not one that enjoys glimpses through the eyes of another, then keep moving and maybe we'll find you something else to read. Like our next book club book: Escape From Camp 14.