Jenna Jameson, Super Genius

I've read a few good books recently. Netherland was a good book about an immigrant in New York. All the smarty pants literati compare it to The Great Gatsby. I didn't like The Great Gatsby's Cliff Notes in high school, so I do have to say this one was better. While in California for the Big Sur Marathon, I read Once a Runner...a perfect book to motivate you for a race.

After reading a good book, it always takes me awhile to find a good follow-on. I started reading Roadie, a book about cyclists. Seems entertaining, but it doesn't move fast enough for me. I'll come back to it in a few weeks. I picked up Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy, because Palahniuk's a damn entertaining writer, and I saw a cool promo to the book on YouTube:



The same night I picked up Pygmy, Sonya handed me a book she's been raving about, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson. She was handed this book a few months back, and said it was a very good biography. She also said that Jameson appears like an intelligent woman. I'm about 60 pages into it, and have already drawn a different conclusion. Here's one example of Jenna's genius, from page 34 of the hardcover edition--

Context: A teenage Jenna is trying to get a job at a strip club and is talking with the manager.
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He took one look at my face, said "Come back when you've go those off," and walked away. F***, I'd forgotten to cover my braces with my upper lip.
....
I returned to Jack's house.  He wasn't there, of course.  I turned up the shower as hot as I could stand and peeled off my clothes.  I stepped inside and just marinated.  It's funny, but as soon as you stop thinking--or trying to think--all of your best ideas come to you.  When you don't focus on a problem, your subconscious will solve it for you.  And that's what happened. 

About ten minutes into my soaking, I had an epiphany.

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She then goes on to describe in detail how she removed her braces with needle-nose pliers.  Is that really an epiphany?  A strip club owner tells you that you can't strip if you have braces, so you remove your braces?  I'm glad she marinated, stopped focusing and let the best ideas come to her.  Who knows what she would've done if she really sat and overanalyzed the dilemma she was facing.

After reading this, I think I'll need some Tolstoy.