One of the things I plan to do with this blog is review books, however that may be misleading; I don't necessarily mean "review" in the sense of an article-length critical essay. I don't want to pass judgment on books so much as write about them, so there are no rules as far as these sorts of entries are concerned. I may do one two-paragraph review of a book, or multiple entries on one book; you just NEVER know. Isn't it exciting?

Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!(Scott Adams)

The ornery Dilbert-scribe finally went over to the dark side and published a book without pictures. Adams can sometimes come off as too glib, even for me (which is saying something), but this collection of short non-fiction pieces is consistently funny. It's also surprisingly thought-provoking; I like the fact that Adams firmly defines himself as a skeptic, but isn't afraid to question some of the quasi-sacred cows of the secular elite. For example, at no point does he claim to doubt the veracity of the theory of evolution overall, but he does question whether or not scientists are oversimplifying their ideas about how evolution actually works so they can flatter themselves by saying that they understand it. Personally I think some people are so distracted by the need to point and laugh at creationism that they don't realize that our understanding of evolution (and related concepts) could probably use some work, but enough about that for now.

Often when an artist does something out of their comfort zone, the best part of the package is whatever remains close to said zone. In other words, one would expect that the numerous anecdotes about Adam's cartooning career with Dilbert would be the best part of the book. While I enjoyed the insight into the world of professional cartooning, it's a credit to Adams that they aren't.

It's available as a bargain book from some retailers, making it a steal at only a few bucks. Go for it.