This Book is an odd little book that refers a lot to itself. It breaks what is known as the “fourth wall” by bringing the book, the reader, and the author together in a way that is both unnatural and humorous.
This Book is a work of tongue-in-cheek self-reference. It is a book about itself - in fact it's a book review of itself. As such, it is a unique book that you won't encounter elsewhere. When writing this bewildering book, Hostetler brought along his unique brand of humor with such gems as;
"As it turns out, Nobody knew exactly who Dr. Anonymous Smarty-pants is, but Nobody was wrong. Nobody likes to think it is wrong and that was of course once again the case."
If you enjoy unusual books that make you think such as; Through the Looking Glass (by Lewis Carroll), Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (by Edwin A. Abbot), or The Illuminatus! Trilogy (by Robert A. Wilson), you may enjoy this book.
Excerpt
"This Book is a work of tongue-in-cheek self-reference. The entire book is about itself and accomplishes this in a manner that insults everything including the book, its author, its reviewers, most other books, and worst of all; its readers. The book starts off as a review of itself but then ventures completely off track and in the end it turns out it’s just trying to get sold on Amazon.com and make the author – “still a poor man”.
The book pretends to be authored by Dr. Anonymous Smarty-pants, but that is only a silly pseudonym. The copyright page attributes ownership to a Leon Hostetler. After some research, I found a website where Hostetler dabbles in puzzles and satire. Perhaps there is the key to understanding this convoluted mess.
This Book may be unique but it’s far from a must-read. According to the Infinite Monkey Theorem it is mathematically guaranteed, that in certain situations, a monkey would write better prose completely by accident. This Book aspires to be intelligent but fails completely. It is monotonous and the constant references to its own monotony don’t help."
Homer's Ill Iliad & Odd Sea Odyssey (420 pages) is an adult satire/parody rewrite of the classic stories of the 10 year Trojan War and of the 10 year adventure of Odysseus trying to return home to his native Ithaca.
