About four months passed between the last time I contemplated quitting on a book and when I read Sam Neumann’s “Memoirs of a Gas Station.”

From the very beginning, I had a hard time figuring out why I cared about this dude and his summer of living and working in the Denali National Park area.  That did not fade over time.

I first purchased a Nook copy of this book a few years ago after seeing a friend whose book tastes usually align with mine rate it as 5 stars.  I did not immediately read it, or in any kind of timely manner read it, because when I opened the file, it said the book was 747 pages long.  I did not have the commitment to take that on.

But this year my goal is to read as many of my unread books as possible, so I dove in.  I quickly realized that the book was not actually that long, and it was just a problem with the Nook formatting.  And that’s great because I would have passed out one night on the Metro while reading this book and may still be riding back and forth between the ends of the silver line.

I will say this, there are a few moments that are enjoyable.  I liked reading about the author’s excursions into Denali itself and picturing the wildlife and scenery.  I am 7 percent more likely to visit.

But what I thought would entertain me more as a former retail worker were the actual gas station parts, and those did not do much for me.  The highlight here was his discussion of down times that included inventing games to pass the time.  That brought back great memories of games such as placing a coin in the mall corridor to watch to see who would pick it up, or balling up pink bracelets and trying to shoot them like basketballs back into their plastic container next to the register.

At times, I felt like he could tell I wasn’t interested and started taking personal shots at me.  He talked about a dinner show he went to: “…the story was dull and the jokes were as funny as a late-era Garfield comic strip.”

How dare you, sir. How. Dare. You.

“Nobody actually likes rain.  Some people claim they don’t mind it, and a fraction of those people are telling the truth.  But they still don’t get any enjoyment out of it; they are just better at tolerating it.”

Oh yeah? I LOVE RAIN. HOW ‘BOUT THEM RAINDROPS?!

“Our search led us to Taco Bell, which had all the elements of a good eatery for me at the time; cheap, fast, and delicious.”

At the time?! Do you now have soooo much money and sooooo much time that Taco Bell is no longer an acceptable “eatery” for your highfalutin standards?!

I say GOOD DAY to you.