Zombie Spaceship Wasteland - A Book by Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswald's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is a jumble of moments remembered and twisted fantasies conceived, assembled into a hallucinatory narrative that tells many stories, but mostly paints a picture of the inner world of one of our generation's best comedians.
Oswald's constant pursuit to improve, to never settle for having a "thing", a comedic gimmick, is shown in the process of book. Much like Stephen King's On Writing, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is a portrait. It leaves you knowing more about Patton Oswald, and as someone who wanted that, I was fulfilled.

If you pay attention to his stand up, you already know Oswalt has a 'literary' aspect hiding just beneath the surface. This is brought to the fore here--with mixed results. At its worst, the book feels overwrought and insecure but, at its best, you will find moments of suprising hilarity and brilliance.

This book is a memoir. It is fascinating. It illustrates cherry-picked moments from a young man's life. These stories illuminate and add dimension and texture to Mr. Oswalt's comedy. This is not: old stand-up, new stand-up, or a new childhood analysis. From hearing Mr. Oswalt's various podcast guest spots in promotion of the book, I thought it might be a theory on nerd taxonomy, but that is just a moment in the memoir. And its good.

Such a great read! Patton writes fluidly and is clever throughout. So interesting to hear his internal dialogue about his early life -- I wouldn't have guessed any of it. And I could totally relate to so much! Highly recommend this!

This book is not just Patton's standup transcribed as so many other comedian's books are. I've been burnt in the past by buying what I've already heard on HBO or on stage. Thanks for giving us new material Patton! If you're a fan of his stand-up you'll most likely enjoy this book. Though be warned, it's not all humor (as in set up and punchline). There's emotional range to the memoir bits that speak to old former DnD playing GenXer like me. I'd love to see him tackle a long form narrative whether it's 'Shadow Dogs' or something else.

Patton's vignette of essays and stories are indeed well written and show off his knowledge of literature, and geekdom. Some chapters, you will like more than others. Wish it were longer. He definitely has the creative chops to do more, whether it be an actual cohesive novel, or screenplay.

I received this book in perfect condition at a very fair price. Patton Oswalt's writing style is very unique. This is a huge plus, especially for those who are not avid readers. The book is hilarious and heart-warming and I would recommend to anyone and everyone. I could not put the book down, again it is a very easy and quick read, but also is so enjoyable that I just had to keep on reading. 5 stars for Patton!

This book was so bad, I stopped reading it almost half way through. My wife picked this up at the library because she thought it would be a collection of science fiction stories. It's not. It is a collection of stories about the author's life. In one story he talks about doing a comedy skit at a bar in Canada. He then talks about how the people were not intelligent enough to understand his jokes. I have news for you, the jokes were not funny and not even worthy of a smirk. The title comes from a theory the author has about different personality types. If you must read this book, get it free from the library. Don't waste your money.

Patton Oswalt tries so hard to be hip and reference stuff that no one (except his little circle of friends/comics) has ever heard of and he succeeds pretty much throughout this book. So I guess he succeeded in proving how cool he was and how woefully unhip I am by not getting his jokes. As an aside, George Carlin was also pretty hip for his time but I could get his jokes.

Back to the book - - I couldn't read the whole thing so I tried to skim ahead hoping it would get better but the comic strip in the middle was just plain weird and the Easter Bunny thing was even weirder. I had previously watched his movie - Comedians of Comedy (absolutely awful and uninspired) and have now read his book (I mean stapled together random riffs) so I think I pretty much need to be done trying to figure out Patton Owsalt.