Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Artsy Wednesday (and Book Review): Waiter Rant

It's been a long time since I've read a book cover to cover the day I bought it. But yesterday I did just that. Last week, Cooper asked me to buy him Waiter Rant, the memoir written by "the waiter", aka Steve Dublanica, the man behind the Waiter Rant blog.

I've read the blog on and off over the past few years - Dublanica's writing is really accessible and of course the subject interests me. So I assumed I'd like the book, even if the transition from blog to book wasn't so smooth.

But it was. The transition was perfect. The book doesn't feel at all like cobbled together posts pulled straight off the blog. Not at all. It has a solid narrative structure with a fair amount of protagonist introspection and growth...plus a lot of funny customer stories.

I read the first 40 pages while sitting in Barnes & Noble, watching Dixon play with the Thomas trains, and the next 130 during the afternoon before Cooper came home from work. I was fully prepared to hand the book over to him (he's the one who asked for it, after all) but he selflessly told me to finish it first. So I did.

I really can't recommend it enough - as I said, the writing is great, it's funny and it's also sort of touching in that personal growth-memoir kind of way.

Also, if you're anything like me, you might have a personal growth experience of your own while reading. At first, I was a little freaked out, wondering if I'm a bad customer. Then I realized that no, I'm not a bad customer at all. And I plan to stay that way.

2 comments:

theminx said...

I enjoyed reading Dublanica's blog and look forward to getting a copy of the book.

I've always been pretty confident that I'm a good customer. I'm a good tipper, am not demanding, and only complain when it's warrented - usually the fault of the kitchen and not the server.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice review!

Steve

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