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Rating: 
Summary: Made Me A Fan of The New Yorker After Many Failed Attempts
Review: I'm not usually a fan of The New Yorker. I can never get through the whole thing and when trying, often feel bogged down. But, everyone says The New Yorker represents good writing, so I picked up For The Fun Of It to see if it would actually show me what "good writing" is. It did! This book is filled with fun vignettes from The New Yorker starting in the 1920s and going through the year 2000. Each piece is a page or two and describes an interesting encounter with a New York personality. You can read about the store that gave Mae West her corsets (1930), Gimbels' venture into live pony-selling (1947), what taxi drivers think is funny (1977) and about "a terrible new smell" that turned up in Tribeca (1992). Or read about "The Guy Who Makes President Clinton Funny"(2000.) And these examples barely scratch the surface. The pieces are written by such notables as James Thurber, Lillian Ross, Brendan Gill, Robert Benchley and even Johnny Carson ("Proverbs According to Dennis Miller"(2000)). There are one or two clunkers, but they're in a definite minority. I really recommend this book to anyone who appreciates and likes to read about the quirky, creative and independent personalities that comprise New York City and, what the heck, America. The book's span of 70 years makes it even more fun and interesting. This book would be a great gift, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Bathroom/Night-table Reading
Review: Or maybe airplane reading. For those not familiar with The Talk of the Town feature in the New Yorker, it is a short, 1000 word-or-so essay on some feature of the current NY scene. The writing is often clever(rarely, too clever eg Garrison Keillor, but this could be predicted) and many great writers have taken a turn at it. Part of the charm of the volume are the older pieces where now-famous names and places are introduced as newcomers and one gets a real feel of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s.
Rating:
Summary: Great Bathroom/Night-table Reading
Review: Or maybe airplane reading. For those not familiar with The Talk of the Town feature in the New Yorker, it is a short, 1000 word-or-so essay on some feature of the current NY scene. The writing is often clever(rarely, too clever eg Garrison Keillor, but this could be predicted) and many great writers have taken a turn at it. Part of the charm of the volume are the older pieces where now-famous names and places are introduced as newcomers and one gets a real feel of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s.
Rating: 
Summary: Ego
Review: Ross, a capable but often pedestrian reporter and writer (her quirks and tics quickly grow tiresome), has overstuffed the book with specimens of her own "Talk" pieces. Much more talented "Talk" writers are woefully unrepresented here.
Rating:
Summary: Start Spreading the News
Review: This is a wonderful book. A compilation of pieces from The Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker spanning nine (!) decades, this is a social history of our nation and of New York. The Fun of It sat forgotten on my shelf for a few months, but I noticed it after the WTC disaster and began reading. What wonderful therapy. Some stories are poignant, others informative, still others laugh-out-loud hilarious. But all are elegant, first class writing. A great book for the bedside or bathroom, it can be dipped into at random and enjoyed for a few minutes or a few hours. Do yourself a favor: read it.
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