Rating: 
Summary: Laughter heals.
Review: I am a Chi Gung master and a Shaman and I spend most of my time healing plants, animals, and people and I've found that Steve's book has tremendously helped to give me that extra edge of healing energy (Chi) when I need it most to help others. His book cracks me up as it shares a rather upside down, sideways, and far away kind of look at life. This book is pure magic. I highly recommend reading it to anyone who wants to experience both the healing power of laughter as well as the zaniness of just being in the moment.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money on this book
Review: After reading several glowing reviews of this book, I rushed out and bought one, with great anticipation. I found the book to be an unfunny, sophomoric stream of (Martin's) consciousness. The book does live up to it's title.
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to anyone who rated this book less than 5 stars
Review: Martin's sharp wit is exactly that - sharp. The jokes are quick and aimed for the intelligent; skip a line and you miss a joke. The short individual chapters all lead to at least 5-6 laughs, but most force you to pause while you catch your breath. Martin is truly the most talented comedic writer of our day, and his love of language and comedy is apparent in each vignette. BUY THIS BOOK, it's worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Steve, come back, wherever you are!
Review: Steve, you've been my Comedy God since I saw your stand-up routine live in the 70's. But this "book" is literally a lightweight that doesn't do justice to your considerable talents. Want to read funny, try "Naked Pictures of Famous People" or even "In The Bin"-a hockey book for god's sake-but pass on this paltry effort
Rating:
Summary: A very unfunny book.
Review: It was the worst book I have read that was written by a comedy actor. The only good part was about the Mensa IQs. I promptly put it in my donation pile not in my bookcase
Rating: 
Summary: Great fun
Review: Pure Drivel is the type of book most people could sit down and read in a single sitting. I tried that at first, but the spark of Martin's comic genius seemed absent. So instead I put the book away for a few days, then came back to it and read the essays one at a time. And what a difference it makes! Martin has always proven that he is a man with varied acting talents. And this book adds an impressively witty literary side. Although I had never read any of the pieces when they were originally published, I can imaging that I would have enjoyed some of the more topical essays had I done so. Martin is at his best when he loses the yoke of news commentary and decides instead to unleash his comedic insight into everyday life. My favorite pieces were - Writing is Easy!; Yes, in My Own Backyard; Times Roman Font Announces Shortage of Periods; The Nature of Matter and Its Antecedents; and A Word from the Words. END
Rating:
Summary: Not for the feint of mind
Review: Intelligent and continuously humorous throughout, with occasional extremely funny ideas - what more can you ask from a book or tape? Requires an appreciation of the abstract (actually the *idea* of abstraction); Martin's forte in my view. Not at all the slapstick of his early, SNL / Jerk "period." Imagine Steve Martin 25 years more intelligent than then. I recommend the tape for the added inflections in his voice, though a few of the pieces work better in print; for example: an article on the "Recent Shortage of Periods in the Times New Roman Font", itself containing but one period (saw it in the New Yorker).
Rating:
Summary: "Steve Martin, In All Ways, Makes Life's Adventure Moreso"
Review: A wicker basket full of words, letters and punctuation marks gathered from the fertile gardens of Steve Martin's mind and spirit can propel us beyond our wildest imaginings--into the many realms and layers of what may actually qualify as Reality. He defines what normal is...anything is possible. Anything. Some of these stories beckon us to savor and relish them several times over--to climb up and grasp at their juiciest branches--dropping out of the corners of our minds and swan-diving off the cliffs into hoots and hoots of blissful belly laughs. One of my favorites is "Bad Dog," and its perfect expression of expressing one's perfection. Another, "Michael Jackson's Old Face", is poetry, and sounds like such even moreso while listening to Steve read it in the audio format. "The Sledgehammer and How to Use It" had both a friend and me in complete stitches with tears rolling down our cheeks as I read it to her. (I, having previously read it in "The New Yorker," knew she was in for a Real Treat!) On occasion, his entire process is so subtle, and yet SO multifaceted, that many souls can miss it altogether, kind of like the cutomer reviewer who read the whole book upside down. Steve invites us to dig into the oft unused portions of our self and travel around inside there, gathering frequent flyer miles whilst visiting amongst "Plato's Paparazzi," "Drivel," "I Love Loosely," "Side Effects" and "Yes, In My Own Backyard". And, Who else would have even known about the Shortage of Periods in the Times Roman Fonts, what to speak of explaining it to the rest of us in such an adventurous and graceful manner? Thank you, Steve, for bounding ahead and then beckoning us along for the Journey of Pure Drivel. It's a Grand One! I, and many others, will look forward to your continued progeny in all its multifarious forms in the decades to come! Keep on living your passions! They create such delectable fruits!
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Drivel?...Oh Yes!
Review: "Pure Drivel" gave me a few chuckles, but to be honest, I expected something funnier--but maybe the title is both the point and disclaimer. The style feels like he wrote it one Saturday while relaxing by his pool, after a few drinks. I'm glad that he included all those "smart" topics: space exploration, mensa, etc. I wouldn't want to mistake it with something Dave Barry wrote on a bad day.
Rating:
Summary: Our society allows intelligence to surface in so few areas.
Review: In how many places can we find humor that is as intelligently and literately produced as Steve Martin's PURE DRIVEL? Unafraid to demonstrate the absurdity of both our environments and his own, Mr. Martin shines through the heaps of garbage that have collected on the surface of American popular culture. The possibility of the embarrassing trends seen in the comedy of Adam Sandler and South Park existing within the same cultural psyche as Steve Martin defies logic.
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