I've long been entertained by the Twitter account of Justin Halpern - @sh*tmydadsays - so I figured I would be equally entertained by his book of the same name. (Or, rather, his Twitter handle doesn't include an asterisk where his book title does.)

The book description from HarperCollins:

After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, twenty-eight-year-old Justin Halpern found himself living at home with his seventy-three-year-old dad. Sam Halpern, who is "like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair," has never minced words, and when Justin moved back home, he began to record all the ridiculous things his dad said to him.

Halpern's book is essentially an expanded version of his Twitter account. He takes the ridiculous, ahem, stuff his father says and adds context and a story to it.

Some people thought Halpern's material was so good that they decided to turn it into a television show starring William Shatner. It was canceled after 18 episodes.

Why must everything be made into a TV show or a movie? Some things are best left just as they are. As is the case with Halpern's Twitter account.

Halpern's material is funny, but it's funny in 140-character snippets. The book was fine, but got a little redundant after a while. At just 158 pages, readers get a good sample of the funny stuff Halpern's dad says.

There was nothing really bad about the book, but its jokes are something I'd rather keep up with via Twitter. In fact, I kind wished Halpern had never gotten the book deal or the TV show so he would update his Twitter account more often. The book was good for one read, but it's not one I'll pick up again. That's probably the reason the show was canceled, too.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl