Books are not something I normally review…or read for that matter. I may read technical information but recreational reading generally isn’t for me. In this case however the author, Steve Barton, is one of my Free Fall Convention buddies. Steve and I have made many jumps together so when he decided to write a book about his adventures in owning a pet store I just had to read it.

Steve is a funny guy and having known him for some time I may have a unique advantage reading his book. As I read, in my mind, the story is in Steve’s voice. He’s telling the story. Readers that don’t know Steve will not have this advantage but I think they will enjoy it anyway. Steve writes the stories as he would tell them verbally so the format is just that, just imagine your self sitting down and listening to funny stories about stupid people and at times, a story about good people. Most of the stories will make you laugh but a couple may make you cry. (happy ending type cry)

Basically the book is a collection of stories and events that have taken place over many years in Steve’s pet shop. Primarily these stories center around the stupid things people do and not the cute things animals do. After reading the book, I myself have a different perspective on things when entering a retail store, especially a small mom and pop store. People need to keep in mind that the store is not there for their entertainment but rather for its owner to make a living.

Some of the stories in the book talk about people using the pet shop as a baby sitting service to mind their kids while they go do other things. Other stories are simply about people using the more dedicated owner operated store for free information before going off to buy at the discount big box store. Other stories are just about stupid things people do. There is really no end to the things people will do! It’s really crazy. I especially liked the guy that bought fish and then kept them in the water filled plastic bag in sub freezing temperatures for a few hours before returning to attempt to get a refund for the solid bag of ice and frozen fish. What a moron! This book is filled with stories of morons like this.

Again, I’m not a book reviewer or reader, it’s just not what I do but if you are into recreational reading and like stories about the stupidity of people and have the skin thickness to handle the direct and no holds bared descriptions of them that a guy like Steve can dish out then you will probably enjoy this book. I guess you really can’t say Steve is being hard on them in the book because he’s just reporting what they do but then again he doesn’t put any sugar on it. If he’s telling a story about an idiot he doesn’t mind saying so! I think anyone of intelligent mind will get a lot of laughs out of this book but those like the people the book is about probably will not. Those people probably just won’t understand it.

Anyway that’s it. It will probably be years if not decades before I read another book recreationally so there probably will not be any more book reviews fourth coming. Maybe I will find time to review more audio equipment one of these days.

Recommended: Yes