This is a short and very funny book, lent to me by the estimable Dr. ASK in order to prove a philosophical point about what books you should keep (answer: this one) and what ones you should get rid of (answer: the others). It's a series of two- and three-page sketches, some of which you may already know from the New Yorker such as this one:

A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids' Table

MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
DAD: O.K.
GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.
UNCLE: I'm having sex right now.
DAD: We all are.
MOM: Let's talk about which kid I like the best.
...

The guy is 24 and very funny. This makes me happy and jealous. He also posts excerpts from his new book on CollegeHumor.com, if you want to be made happy and jealous too.

Perfect little book if you are in a hurry and enjoy laughing out loud. Drinking chocolate milk while reading guarantees a mess.

What an original, fresh, smart voice! Simon Rich's very short stories made me laugh out loud and buy many copies for friends and relatives of varied ages and tastes. The stories have such original premises dealing with heaven, hockey players, nerdy bears, soldiers.... I think the best are the stories about adolescent boys--their rage, awkwardness, resistance to deodorant. I hope the author has a wonderful, long career. Happy to read he works for Saturday Night Live now--I hope it doesn't wreck him! The writing is spare and clear--very well crafted. This reads super quickly.

Just a bunch of funny, short stories and/or observations. I think my favorite had to be the ones about math & calculators :o) Those couple of stories made the WHOLE book worth it! It gets a little slow near the end, but it's good, short read.

That pretty much sums up this snarky, cynical and humorous collection of speculations and observations from Simon Rich. It's a collection that presents a more youthful, upbeat resignation echoing the more reposed one found in the writing of David Sedaris. Ant Farm is full of nostalgic recollections and weird possibilities concerning the irrelevancies of those desperate situations that give us awkward moments of reflection.

Moments that involve realizing the agony spent before receiving one's first calculator, the ironic closed-mindedness when experimenting with a ouija board, making candy with a forgetful someone named Peanut Al, keeping close tabs on your daily karma tally, God's overwhelming support for Orel Hershiser, and the three things you really don't need if stranded on a desert island.

Ant Farm is an incredibly fast and funny read. The selections are brief and varied, maybe a little too much so, as each consists no more than a couple of pages and is unbounded by coherent theme other than pure whimsy. But it does create that weird momentary pause, raising the question whether there is anything more absurd than us humans and our behavior.