Unique reads

Unique reads

In Slice Harvester (Simon & Schuster, 2015, 209 pages), punk rocker, author and pizza lover Colin Atrophy Hagendorf writes about the events that helped him get through some rough times in life and become a better individual.
He jumps around in time as he writes about his experiences going to all the pizza parlors in Manhattan. Those chapters appear in chronological order by dates visited.
Hagendorf starts off each chapter with a sketch and the location of the pizza parlor. He mostly wrote about his visits to the parlors as individual adventures, having started eating every plain slice in Manhattan on August 11, 2009, and eating his last slice on November 22, 2011. During that time period he ate a total of four hundred thirty-five slices.
In Silver Screen Fiend (Scribner, 2015, 272 pages), comedian, actor and author Patton Oswalt writes about his addiction to film.  Other topics included in this book are his writing and comedy.
Oswalt–who also wrote the New York Times bestseller Zombies Spaceship Wasteland–has produced five television specials and comedy albums and made appearances on many television shows such as Mad TV. Oswalt is the guy who put together Comedians of Comedy, which is a tour through the United States of four comedians:  Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, and Maria Bamford.
Oswalt has also appeared on Seinfeld and written for MTV Music Video Awards. He is also known for Rick and Morty, Ratatouille, The Kings of Queens, and Two and a Half Men.
silver-screen-fiend-9781451673227_lgBoth Slice Harvester and Silver Screen Fiend have similarities. Some would say that both are written about hobbies. Others may say that both  books may help the reader get through tough times in life. Hagendorf had an addiction to drinking. He also had a hard time making a living from delivering burritos. Oswalt also dealt with an addiction: to film.
Another way both books are similar are that each writer took something so simple and made it into a career which I believe improved both their lives. Both authors have a sense of humor as well.
Both authors refer to other creative works in their memoirs. On  page 78 of Slice Harvester, for example, Hagendorf talks about A Canticle for Leibowitz, a science fiction novel by Waler M. Miller, Jr. Oswalt definitely talks a lot about some of his other works throughout the book.
One big difference between the books is that I found it much easier to understand Slice Harvester. Even though it was about films, which everyone can relate to, I felt Silver Screen Fiend was harder to understand. Oswalt’s writing style was more professional compared to Colin’s use of everyday speaking vocabulary, which included some vulgar language.
I also believe that the audience for Silver Screen Fiend is for the older generation because the book talked about films that older people would know about. More people can relate to eating pizza and going on blogs as described in Slice Harvester.
I believe the people who would enjoy Slice Harvester are people who  are looking for a way to escape reality. Another reason people would be interested in this book is to see how something so simple, such as eating a slice of pizza, can change a person’s whole life around for the better.
People who are interested in Oswalt himself would enjoy Silver Screen Fiend. Another reason people might read the book for inspiration. Just reading a book on how someone made it as a writer and performer will definitely prove to the readers that they can do it also.
People who might dislike Slice Harvester might be the type of people who were like Colin when they were teens and don’t want to be reminded of that past. Others who might not enjoy are people who some would say aren’t successful in life. I think people who are stuck in a dead end job might not want to be reminded of that.
People who don’t know Oswalt as a non-comedic person might not like Silver Screen Fiend. Also others may not enjoy it because they tried to become a writer or performer and failed.
Of people who reviewed Slice Harvester on Amazon.com, 90% gave the book a five out of five stars. The only people who gave the book 1 star seemed to be people who bought the book because they thought it was going to be a memoir on pizza.
Amazon.com ratings for Silver Screen Fiend varied. There are people who absolutely loved it and people who didn’t enjoy the book, but the majority of people were in the middle. They didn’t like that the book wasn’t more about films.
The people who did enjoy it said that they liked how the book had just the right amount of comedic parts, where most of the people who gave it one star said there wasn’t enough comedy.
I would have given Slice Harvester five out of five stars because even though I went in thinking this book was going to be a pizza memoir, I really liked the way Hagendorf wrote and I especially liked the topic he wrote about. I also liked the way he progressed with his life from the beginning to the end of the book making it a better outcome.
I would have given Silver Screen Fiend three out of five stars because I thought it could have been funnier like his stand-up routines were. That being said, I did like learning a little more about his life and how he came up as a performer and writer.