Book Club: Dad is Fat

Continuing the book club trend, I will tell you about another one of my summer reads. As I mentioned, I’m not in a real book club, but I’m going to pretend to have one. Or if you really want, we can just call this a real one. Grab some wine or chocolate and read whatever I read if you feel so inclined.

Recently I read Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan, who is an incredibly funny man and comedian. It really was a book full of jokes and stories about his life as a parent. Without yet being a parent myself, I found the book funny but maybe would find it even funnier if I was indeed responsible for a bunch of littles. But let’s be honest, I read a whole bunch of books and blogs all about parenthood and still enjoy them (yet have managed to avoid parenthood so far–the life stage, not the show. I love Parenthood the show.) so why should this be any different? Jim loves his kids, wrestles with how to be a good dad and tells some good jokes along the way.

What I loved about this book:

• Any book that has me laughing out loud is awesome. I look (and sound) slightly like a crazy person when I am audibly laughing within near vicinity of any normal human beings, but it’s worth it. He definitely is funny.
• Not only is he funny, but he is a clean comedian. I won’t call him “family-friendly” because if you read this book, he has an entire theory on such a term. But, I do appreciate humor that doesn’t make you feel dirty or question your morals.
• He sheds some light into big families. I only have two sisters, so you could hardly say I came from a big family. My mom, however, is one of eight so I feel I can relate on some levels to such a setting, albeit indirectly.

What I didn’t love so much:

• Some of the jokes are the same jokes that are in his show. I’ll admit, I’ve never seen a live show, but a few of them are on Netflix (which you should watch next time you need a laugh). I understand reusing them, but it can feel redundant since you know just what joke is coming.
• His stand-up is a little more natural than his book writing. You can get the tone and the inflection, which is a big part of his comedy. I heard that the audiobook of this book was narrated by Jim himself, so maybe it would be worthwhile to “read” it that way.
• Some of the content feels a little like filler. Or maybe just long-worded tangents. But hey, I haven’t written a book so I’m sure sometimes that’s just how it works.

Concluding Thoughts:

This was a fun read. It was fairly short, so it was also a quick read. Each chapter was a separate topic within parenthood for the most part, so it was easy to get to a stopping point if you only wanted to read one piece at a time. It really is solely about parenthood, so be ready for that (whereas his usual stand-up is a mix of everything), but I also think it would be an awesome gift for a new dad-to-be.