jshallow01
I am always intrigued by how an author comes up with a title to a book. Sometimes they are pretty self explanatory and other times they seem more obscure. Until I dove in to this very quick read of essays, I wasn’t sure exactly what the title referred to. My curiousity as to the naming of the title was quickly answered when I read the preface and was asked to ponder why (white) marshmallows list the dye blue 1 as an ingredient. Yes, that does seem weird to me. And yes, I did check my own bag of marshmallows in the cupboard and saw it listed as an ingredient. So, I thought that this was a good start to the book and was interested to see what other essays and musings Dan Fogg had to share with us.
As I read though the section of “Do Not Stop On The Tracks”, I couldn’t help think about all the many baby products that I have read such warnings on, those warnings that were common sense and didn’t need to be spelled out but they obviously had to because more than one person lacked the common sense that was required to use such a product.
The book includes other sections titled “En Masse” “Technology Sucks” ‘That’s Just Freaky” and “Weird Stuff”. I did find some of the observations to be more critical and cynical than I am myself, but some of the other observations were entertaining to read. My favorite essay in the collection is called “The Vortex” and seemed to be the start of a movie. He did a good job describing the setting that allowed me to get a clear picture and understand his feelings. And I thought the most, shall we say – educational, was “Electile Dysfunction 2000: Heard from Florida Lately?”
I did enjoy reading though his collection of favorite quotes. Reading what inspires or provokes a person helps you to draw up a mental image of their character and provide a deeper insight to their writings.
Buy Weirder Than Marshmallows from Amazon in eBook or print format.
