Did I say I'd have a book review up on Monday morning? Huh. I was sure I said Wednesday afternoon...

I am, almost entirely, an auditory learner. I have phonographic (I think I made that up) memory, something that endlessly irritates my mother and my husband, as I feel the need to play back entire conversations if I feel the information will aid my side in an argument.

I have learned to read silently and quickly, but it took a long time to get there. Nowadays, I can do research in the library with the best of them. But humor? Um, let's just say my need for a strong "voice" in writing becomes quite literal when it comes to jokes.

I'm choosing this as the main excuse for why it took me so long to finish P.J. O'Rourke's All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty. Any time I'd read it silently, or when tired, I'd notice that I'd gone several pages with nary a joke.

Not in this book, folks.

O'Rourke is hardcore Republican. He argues most of the traditional right-wing positions on these social issues. Which generally would have made my head explode while I read.

But he's genuinely funny. And his research methods certainly seem proactive. He went to Bangladesh to write about overpopulation, to Somalia to write about famine, and to Vietnam to write about economic justice.

While I disagreed with a great many of O'Rourke's positions, I found some of his arguments rather compelling. One thing he pointed out was the inherent racism often found in the overpopulation debate. No one seems bothered by the crowding in Western metropolitan areas, but some would try to force members of the Two-Thirds world to decrease their population.

Now, don't worry. I don't think my political position has changed in any essential way. I don't think boundless capitalism is the answer to all the world's ills. Surprisingly (at least to me), I don't think O'Rourke does either. He admits that even with endless financial resources, humans would inevitably find a way to fuck stuff up.

Much to my surprise, I enjoyed the book. I wonder if it comes in an audio version.