I’ve mentioned this before, I think - if I don’t have something immediately lined up as my next read I can face a little decision paralysis about what I should read next and then I end up putting off reading anything new and I go into a reading drought.

We were on the verge of this happening here because after I finished my last book I had nothing in mind.

Then I went downstairs and looked at our bookshelves to see if there was anything there that I hadn’t read that jumped out at me.

I saw Catch-22 and it fit a couple of criteria: it was a book I had not read, and it’s considered a classic (I think?) and I figured it was something that I should read.

So I did.

I’m not sure whose book this was - I definitely didn’t read it in high school or college, but it’s possible Kathy did? I think the most likely culprit is it came from my grandparents’ house and made its way to me. It seems like a pretty old copy of the book.

The book was a bit of a slog at times, and I wasn’t always entirely sure what was going on, but I made sure I read a little bit every night and I got through it.

I understand why it’s considered a funny book. It’s not drop-dead hilarious, but there’s enough good-enough humor in there that I could appreciate it. Maybe that’s what was considered ‘very funny’ in the 1950s. If that’s the case, maybe it was drop-dead hilarious.

One thing I was shocked by was how many adverbs were in the book. Just a ridiculous amount of adverbs. It made the teacher in me envious of anyone teaching adverbs who could go to this book and turn to any page for in-context examples of adverbs.

One of Joseph Heller’s humorous elements seemed to be to let a thought run-on beyond its limit. Over the course of 450 pages…there are too many of those instances. This book could have been way shorter.

It’s a pretty biting satire (I think?) and many parts of it seem just as applicable to today’s world as to the time it was written.

I think my biggest problem with getting through the book is that it’s very military in nature and that’s not something that usually catches my interest.

But I followed along pretty well, all told. In my research about the story post-reading, the non-linear storytelling is explained, and while that confused me a little while I was reading, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out what the heck was going on. (I guess the author has to get some credit for that as well. It’s a real team effort between reader and writer sometimes.)

If I had chosen this book over something I was eager to read, I might have been disappointed because I spent too much time on it. As it is, though, since I had nothing else going on, it felt like time well spent. I’m glad I read it.