Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specif

I must confess that until I paged through INVENTORY, I had never heard of the A. V. Club. I guess that makes me one of those "living in a cave for the last 300 years" reprobates of legend. In any case, I happened across INVENTORY at the local Bungling & Noble and, being a trivia/pop culture lover, immmediately scooped it up. It's a hoot! INVENTORY'S 238 pages are crammed with lists, lists and more lists, some 100+ "obsessively specific pop-culture lists" in all. TV/movie/music/pop culture lovers will find lists of six Keanu Reeves movies not ruined by Keanu Reeves, 22 movies with post-credit surprises, 26 songs that work as short stories, six alternate movie endings that were - happily for audiences - discarded, five alternate endings that - unfortunately - were dropped, 21 kiddie TV shows that found adult audiences, eight great films made by directors over 70, five essential books on TV, 100 great songs two minutes or under in length, 24 great films too painful to watch twice, 25 sure signs a sitcom sucks, 12 films that defined their decades, 12 disgusting movie meals, 22 really stupid movie adversaries, 24 stupid inventions for lazy Americans, 13 really awful fast-food innovations and so on. The commentaries are witty, informed and a little bent. The various opinions expressed about films, TV, music, books and pop culture are an enjoyable combination of reverence and snarkiness. INVENTORY is definitely not an UNCLE JOHN clone. One of the sections I enjoyed most was 'Whittling a Spoon from a Bigger Spoon' that listed 50 ideas the editors rejected(!) for the book. One hopes they reconsider some of those gems for a follow-up. If you enjoy your trivia with a snarky twist, INVENTORY will fill the bill. Recommended.

This punchy pop culture treasure map assembles dozens of topics, hundreds of entries, and innumerable subjects you've probably never heard of, or at least thought about for years, in a way that is both hilarious and insightful. The authors' brash, opinionated tone, coupled with playful banter that dares you to disagree, makes this dashing collection a fun, entertaining roller coaster ride of pop culture wisdom and tragically hip panache. Lists touch on music, books, movies, TV, comedy, tragedy, authors, directors, musicians, comic book artists, award winners, and more. It reaches for the high and playfully mocks the low, achieving an outspoken tone without being needlessly mean. I have found success just reading the lists out loud to a group and watching them start discussions or provoke arguments (Ike & Tina's "Proud Mary" outdoes the CCR original? Sacrilege!) Whether you want to brush up on pop culture, collect hipness points, or just laugh along with sharp minds turning their efforts to broad insight, this book will entertain for hours. It has kept me up past my bedtime just wanting to find out about the next ridiculous movie monster or ill-considered rock song. Fun and funny, punchy but not preachy, this book will entertain even the most unhip reader on your gift list.

I'm not a terribly huge fan of the AV Club; I check the website every now and then to see what is going on. I bought this book because it was only 10 bucks and, after reading most of it I must say, is a steal. Not only are the lists themselves incredibly entertaining, but the commentaries for each listing are written well enough to make me care about a Lars von Trier movie (Bravo!). This book won't change your life, but for the price, you will find hours of entertainment and interest.

If you were an alien from another galaxy needing a crash guide to the underpinnings of US pop culture, you couldn't find a better guide then The Onion's new book, Inventory. I have always enjoyed the A.V. Club reviews of music, movies and books in "America's Finest News Source." They may be hip and ironic but their analyses are always insightful. Now here is a catalog of that department's occasional groupings. Enjoy such things as "6 Keanu Reeves movies somehow not ruined by Keanu Reeves," "26 songs that works as short stories," "15 Dr. Seuss characters that sound like sex toys, "5 essential books about film," "25 sure signs that a sitcom is terrible," etc. etc. Unless you are a big fan of movies about dancing or terminal illness, this book will send you to Netflix or your local DVD rental store without fail. Plus it got me into the library site. Let's face it, most bookstores have long forgotten Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues both adroitly featured here in "14 must-read books for aspiring young rebels." And what about Kurt Vonnegut. He formed our lives. Inventory reminds us how he wrote in Mother Night, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." If nothing else this compilation shows us that we have not progressed as much as we like to think. We just conveniently forget the old contexts. The A.V. gang isn't letting us. Some of their smart-ass gives way to the profound. Stop for a minute and think of books or movies that you think define the decades of the past, then take a look at their lists and the rationale for each. Here's a snippet on Pulp Fiction, for example, "The twentysomethings who watched Pulp Fiction dozens of times over weren't just looking for cool movie characters, they were returning repeatedly to a cinematic universe that imbued the detritus of their youth--the theme restaurants, the movie quotes, the meaningless banter about trivia--with meaning." Though there is depth, the scope of material is limited (to the media as high art and beautiful trash). I don't see this as a shortcoming, but rather as a challenge to the rest of us to think and talk and write about our lives instead of being satisfied with the usual gloss. Inventory's format is fun, assessable, and always stimulating. I like the "heaven" and "hell" listings across the top and bottom of very page contrasting "RSS feeds" with "pop-up ads"; "New Yorker cartoons" with "New York Post headlines"; "wood" vs. "particleboard." This volume has an honored a well-deserved, permanent place in my bathroom. It's too good not to go back to. There's even a section titled "50 list ideas we rejected for this book." I'm sure our interplanetary traveler would have enjoyed, "Hey, its Harvey Keitel's penis: 5 films with uncomfortable nude scenes."

I make it a point every Monday to read the AV Club's new Inventory. These pop-culture lists are almost always interesting, even if I'm not necessarily interested in the subject at hand. When they hit on a subject that does interest me (such as the list of great movies that are too upsetting to see twice), it's absolutely fascinating. I debated whether or not to buy the book; my main reason to buy it was for the book-only content: guest lists by people including Andrew W.K., Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman, and others. The guest lists are pretty disappointing, on the whole; they certainly don't hold up to the quality of the AV Club's writing, and many of them are not even in the spirit of the AV Club Inventory. (The first one, by Robert Ben Garant, is a simple list of gross-out moments from movies. It's not particularly witty or interesting; any blog commenter worth his "firsties" could have come up with it. Sorry, Mr. Garant; you're far from alone.) The only guest list writer who really gets it is Patton Oswalt; his list is smart, insightful, and funny. But really, the suckiness of the guest lists is my only complaint (and you'll see, I didn't even ding the book a star for it). I bought this book for my Kindle, because it's a great thing to have in portable form and be able to read in bits and pieces while waiting around. It would also be a great book to buy and keep in the bathroom or nightstand; it lends itself perfectly to being read in small doses. Next time, AV Club, skip the guests and give us more of your own writing!