I took a break from reading childbirth and parenting books and read a few “fun” books from the library.

Up Until Now: The Autobiography
By William Shatner, David Fisher
When I saw this audiobook on the shelf at the library, I was totally excited. There are few things funnier to me than listening to William Shatner talking, even when he is not saying anything particularly funny. I just love the cadence of his voice. When I watch the original Star Trek series the character of Captain Kirk kind of annoyed me, but when I saw Shatner play Denny Crane on Boston Legal, I started to see the humor. “My presence is so powerful, I don’t even have to speak”. Then there was the album “Has Been” that Shatner did with Ben Folds which I bought immediately when it came out. It’s one of the best albums! In fact, William Shatner has had a really interesting life and diverse career. He has a lot of funny moments but also the really poignant ones, such as the death of his wife Noreen – he has a track about her death on the Has Been album that I have often found too sad to listen to. One of the highlights of this book, for me, was his explanation of why he chose the last words he chose for Captain Kirk’s death in the movie Star Trek: Generations.

Let me first say that I have quite the Trekkie roots (NO I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE ITERATION “TREKKER”) and my nerdiness was at its peak when I was a teenager, right when Generations came out, in 1994, when I was 16 years old. I actually stood in line for an ungodly amount of time to see the preview screening. I am relatively certain that I was wearing some kind of costume. Anyway, although I always loved Picard more than Kirk (sorry, Shatner), I was very upset at the last words of Captain Kirk when he dies. Kirk spends his life flying around punching aliens in the face and teaching alien women “to love” and his last words are… Well, I will not spoil it if you haven’t seen the movie but I was like WHAT!?? I have been bitter about it for years. It was never right to me. In this book, Shatner explains why he played it that way and suddenly I felt much better. It made more sense. I was not upset anymore. I wish I had someone to explain this to. How much better I feel after hearing that. And how nerdy I realize that is.

So, I would definitely recommend this audio book, even if you are not a Trekkie. He’s just had an interesting life. And the audio version is even better, because of the way his voice sounds. Also, listen to the album “Has Been“!

Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons
Years ago, my college roommate made me watch the movie Cold Comfort Farm multiple times. We went around saying “There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!” and “I saw something nasty in the woodshed!”. So when I saw this book at the library, I had no idea it has been a book first! I picked it up and read it, and now I honestly can’t remember if the movie was anything like the book or not. There are things in the book that I don’t remember from the movie, but then again, I saw the movie around 10 years ago. But I loved the book! So cute. It might have helped that I was positively pre-disposed toward it from seeing the movie because I could see how it might be tedious at first for someone who wasn’t. I love how it was so completely ridiculous throughout most of the book and then ended all wrapped up so nicely. So unlike real life.

I guess I’ll get back to reading the kid-related books soon and let you know how those go. I am in a big line for The Baby Whisperer from the library.