Funny stuff. Don't read this, mother. ( )

I absoluty adored the shit out of this book.

It made me nostalgic to my own videostore I went to as a child/teenager. Which didn't really had a porno room but just a small section. One that shared a wall (on the other side) with the children's movies. Which amused me to no end. Children could not see the movies but if you were tall enough people could look over the shelves and see them and hear them for sure. Which must made looking for porn very uncomfortable.

But I loved how Ali Davis told stories about her customers but also put her almost filosofical thoughts about everything. And she doesn't spare herself when talking about mistakes she made.

Plus she is funny as hell. It's the kind of humor I enjoy very much. A bit witty and clever. In dutch we call it droog (dry). But doesn't translate very well in English.

Even the last chapter made me laugh:

Valedictory Address

Writing this journal has taught me many things.

The first is that people who hold a given point of view too passionately tend not to be careful readers.

I've had rabidly anti-porn people (mostly women) tear into me because I didn't say that all porn ever is inherently evil, and I've had ferociously pro-porn people (mostly men) send me frothingly outraged e-mails because I didn't say that all porn ever is healthy, free, and wonderful.

Both groups almost invariably accused me of writing things I hadn't -- and sometimes accused me of taking positions when I'd clearly written the opposite sentiment. At first I thought I was being willfully misinterpreted, but then I realized that these people were just seeing what they expected to see, and what, I think, they wanted to see. It's hard to deal with someone's gray areas when you're spoiling for a fight.

But that has been the only negative. Mostly this odd little burst of pseudo-semi-almost-fame has taught me that people are funny, thoughtful and kindhearted.

( )

Meh. Musings about a minimun wage job that involves a lurid subject. No need to write or read the book. ( )

Short and enjoyable account of the author’s time as a clerk in a video store that did a lot of porn business. She writes with compassion and annoyance about the customers and the porn: some of the porn really is degrading, and some of the customers are trying to substitute porn for human connection, but others just want an orgasm, which is fine as long as they clean up after themselves. ( )