Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Dishwasher: One Man’s Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States – Pete Jordan

This is another book I found out about through Susan, I think her book club read it a few years ago.  It looked to me like a quirky, offbeat, Americana-type book.  I was not disappointed!

Pete made me think of several of my students, a true underachiever! He was capable of working hard, but the motivation wasn’t there.  He always continually managed to get himself in little scuffles that always managed to land him in trouble, but he never felt that the trouble was justified, he always had a good reason behind his actions.  He managed to find his niche early on – dishwashing.  It was perfect for him!  He could work in peace and quiet, he could quit when he wanted to, and he could slack off as much as he wanted! 

I really enjoyed reading this book!  Pete’s style & humor reminded me of Bill Bryson.  He traveled across the USA several times and had experiences I can only dream of.  Some of the stories were laugh out loud funny!

This book was a perfect book for my Kindle App on my iPhone!  I have taken to reading a book in my Kindle App while stuck in traffic. I know it sounds dangerous, but really it’s safer than a lot of things I could be doing!  I only read when the car is stopped at a stop light, or in a traffic backup.  When the car is rolling I point the phone away from eyes, or click it closed until the next time I’m stopped.  With the horrible traffic around here I get a surprisingly large amount of reading time on my way home from school!  The one challenge is finding books that are conducive to reading in small spurts – books that are entertaining, yet easy to read.  Dishwasher, fit the bill perfectly!  I found myself cheering when I saw a long line of traffic, because I knew it meant I could read!

I am counting this book toward the Twenty-Ten challenge under the category of “Shiny and New”.  The category is for books purchased in 2010.  I think using a Kindle book for the category is a bit of a stretch, however, I don’t buy very many adult books and this is one that the library didn’t have so I was going to have to purchase it somewhere, the Kindle version was cheaper than the paper one.