The AV Club & Stephen Fry. It's all Supplemental.

Hello,
I have a strange love for supplemental books. By supplemental I mean books that are linked to other media. Recently I picked up two enjoyable books that fit into this category. Now generally these books are completely contingent on whether you enjoy the primary material. I already read the AV Club website, which is a subsidiary of The Onion.

It was first introduced to me by a co-worker Alex and quickly I made it into one of my fave bookmarks. So it was only a matter of time before they put out a book Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Liststo supplement and showcase their online content. Unfortunately it is exactly what it proclaims it is-a book of lists. Don't get me wrong, I am a lover of lists. I admit it is silly and sometimes pointless. However it is often amusing and I might learn about something new, but otherwise this kind of book is not meant for anything beyond the superficial laugh. If that's what your looking for then Inventory is exactly what you want. While I did find it to be a lot of fun there wasn't much that I couldn't find online.

On the other side I also picked up Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All which was very insightful. Apparently British actor Stephen Fry decided to visit all 50 states and film a documentary about his travels for BBC which will air sometime in the future. Stephen Fry is a wonderful actor who is also a very strong educated writer. He is that strange British combination of very educated but also occasionally very silly. Anyone who has watched his work in Jeeves and Wooster will agree with me. Now here in the US we are still waiting for the documentary, however we do have a wonderful book already available. I was shocked at how long it took me to read this travelogue. Fry does visit all 50 states, although I felt that Idaho and Delaware may have gotten the short shrift. He does find interesting new things about each state. (Yeah even in North Dakota!) I think that I would enjoy this book regardless of whether the BBC series ever came out. That is a key sign of any good book, whether it be supplemental or not. At nearly 300+ pages it was well worth the journey.

Here's a preview for the series.


Gosh I hope it makes it way on to my PBS stations. Well until then I'll just have to live with the book. Sigh.

Have a great weekend! Book Slave.