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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.0973
EAN: 9781416594734
ISBN: 1416594736
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Each week, the writers of The A.V. Club issue a slightly slanted pop-culture list filled with challenging opinions (Is David Bowie's "Young Americans" nearly ruined by saxophone?) and fascinating facts. Exploring 24 great films too painful to watch twice, 14 tragic movie-masturbation scenes, 18 songs about crappy cities, and much more, Inventory combines a massive helping of new lists created especially for the book with a few favorites first seen at avclub.com and in the pages of The A.V. Club's sister publication, The Onion.
But wait! There's more: John Hodgman offers a set of minutely detailed (and probably fictional) character actors. Patton Oswalt waxes ecstatic about the "quiet film revolutions" that changed cinema in small but exciting ways. Amy Sedaris lists 50 things that make her laugh. "Weird Al" Yankovic examines the noises of Mad magazine's Don Martin. Plus lists from Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Ben Garant, Tom Lennon, Andrew W.K., Tim and Eric, Daniel Handler, and Zach Galifianakis -- and an epic foreword from essayist Chuck Klosterman.
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
If you were an alien from another galaxy needing a crash guide to the underpinnings of US pop culture, you couldn't find a better guide then The Onion's new book, Inventory. I have always enjoyed the A.V. Club reviews of music, movies and books in "America's Finest News Source." They may be hip and ironic but their analyses are always insightful. Now here is a catalog of that department's occasional groupings. Enjoy such things as "6 Keanu Reeves movies somehow not ruined by Keanu Reeves," "26 songs that works as short stories," "15 Dr. Seuss characters that sound like sex toys, "5 essential books about film," "25 sure signs that a sitcom is terrible," etc. etc. Unless you are a big fan of movies about dancing or terminal illness, this book will send you to Netflix or your local DVD rental store without fail.
Plus it got me into the library site. Let's face it, most bookstores have long forgotten Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues both adroitly featured here in "14 must-read books for aspiring young rebels." And what about Kurt Vonnegut. He formed our lives. Inventory reminds us how he wrote in Mother Night, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." If nothing else this compilation shows us that we have not progressed as much as we like to think. We just conveniently forget the old contexts. The A.V. gang isn't letting us. Some of their smart-ass gives way to the profound. Stop for a minute and think of books or movies that you think define the decades of the past, then take a look at their lists and the rationale for each. Here's a snippet on Pulp Fiction, for example, "The twentysomethings who watched Pulp Fiction dozens of times over weren't just looking for cool movie characters, they were returning repeatedly to a cinematic universe that imbued the detritus of their youth--the theme restaurants, the movie quotes, the meaningless banter about trivia--with meaning."
Though there is depth, the scope of material is limited (to the media as high art and beautiful trash). I don't see this as a shortcoming, but rather as a challenge to the rest of us to think and talk and write about our lives instead of being satisfied with the usual gloss. Inventory's format is fun, assessable, and always stimulating. I like the "heaven" and "hell" listings across the top and bottom of very page contrasting "RSS feeds" with "pop-up ads"; "New Yorker cartoons" with "New York Post headlines"; "wood" vs. "particleboard." This volume has an honored a well-deserved, permanent place in my bathroom. It's too good not to go back to. There's even a section titled "50 list ideas we rejected for this book." I'm sure our interplanetary traveler would have enjoyed, "Hey, its Harvey Keitel's penis: 5 films with uncomfortable nude scenes."
Rating: -
I make it a point every Monday to read the AV Club's new Inventory. These pop-culture lists are almost always interesting, even if I'm not necessarily interested in the subject at hand. When they hit on a subject that does interest me (such as the list of great movies that are too upsetting to see twice), it's absolutely fascinating.
I debated whether or not to buy the book; my main reason to buy it was for the book-only content: guest lists by people including Andrew W.K., Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman, and others. The guest lists are pretty disappointing, on the whole; they certainly don't hold up to the quality of the AV Club's writing, and many of them are not even in the spirit of the AV Club Inventory. (The first one, by Robert Ben Garant, is a simple list of gross-out moments from movies. It's not particularly witty or interesting; any blog commenter worth his "firsties" could have come up with it. Sorry, Mr. Garant; you're far from alone.) The only guest list writer who really gets it is Patton Oswalt; his list is smart, insightful, and funny.
But really, the suckiness of the guest lists is my only complaint (and you'll see, I didn't even ding the book a star for it). I bought this book for my Kindle, because it's a great thing to have in portable form and be able to read in bits and pieces while waiting around. It would also be a great book to buy and keep in the bathroom or nightstand; it lends itself perfectly to being read in small doses.
Next time, AV Club, skip the guests and give us more of your own writing!
Rating: -
This book, composed almost entirely of "obsessively specific pop culture lists" is a must-have for any modern-day fans of music, movies, television, books, et cetera. The book is cleanly written, often funny, and full of great leads. Since getting it, I've found myself on Amazon numerous times ordering other titles it's recommended. This is not to say that I always agree with it--sometimes I vehemently disagree with its choices or its dismissals, and on nearly every list I think of things that should have been included and weren't--but still, it will get you thinking. It's the sort of book you'll want to read and then pass on to friends, just so you can argue about what the book says, what made it in, and what didn't. Fans of the AV Club, this is a must: it's not as intimate or warm as the AV CLUB's other book, THE TENACITY OF THE COCKROACH, and it seems to be written for shorter attention spans, but it's a great read nonetheless, and I highly, highly recommend it, even if it does mistakenly dismiss the movie adaptation of THE HOURS, suggest that Slush Puppies are worse than Slushees, and bizarrely declare that a Beverly Hills 90210 marathon is Heaven. (It's not.)
Get this. You'll love it. It's like trading recommends with a group of the savviest, most articulate pop culture junkies ever. It's a lot of fun.
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