Rating: 
Summary: Unparalleled observations of every-day details
Review: What's so phenomenal about Baker's debut is the combination of his outside awareness (allowing him to witness his nearly subliminal every day thoughts), and the infinitely fine detail with which he is able to describe them in writing. The result is a terrifically engrossing exploration of life's smallest and most self-intimate moments: the breaking of a shoelace (why one and not the other?), the drifting float of a plastic straw in a can of soda (why do plastic and paper straws act differently?), and so on.Baker not only observes these every day thoughts running through his head, but provides fully fleshed musings on the pathways they ride through one's brain. It's an amazing technical feat that provides page after page of laughs and knowing nods. This isn't just a book of fiction with footnotes, it's a book of fiction with footnotes that essentially supplant the mainline text. In doing so, they make conscious some of the ideas that we usually consider only in the privacy of our own heads.
| 
