Sent straight to the bargain bin by capitalist pigs

It must be a delicious irony to the corporate machine Michael Moore rages against that all his books end up on the bargain racks. I bought a hardcover copy of Downsize This from Waldenbooks for $3.99 a couple years ago, and then last month I happened upon Adventures in a TV Nation at Powell's City of Books (in Portland, Oregon) for a scant $5.99. And, as a fan of Moore's mistreated, censored and canceled show "TV Nation," I thought it might be worth picking up.

Adventures... purports to tell "the stories behind America's most outrageous TV show," and on occasions it does illuminate the show's existing liberal-as-hell news segments. More often, though, it's regurgitated material from the show, including black-and-white freeze-frame stills, that doesn't work nearly as well in print (and several years after its timely debut) as it did onscreen. To suggest it's a tell-all book is misleading -- Moore usually told just as much when he originally introduced the segments on camera.

For people like me, who often wonder how an uber-persistent man like Moore gets away with pestering evil CEOs (yes, I'm aware of that redundancy), Adventures... explains the origin of the show itself, the run-ins with network censors and the eventual (and inevitable) cancellation of the show. As Moore points out, it's somewhat nonproductive to ask corporate advertisers to sponsor a show so inherently and violently against the ideas those companies stand for.

Book highlights include a chronicle of Janeane Garofalo leading a busload of minority extras into an exclusive Greenwich, Conn., beach, Fear of a Black Hat auteur Rusty Cundieff purchasing and leading around chained white "slave" laborers and distinguished black actor Yaphet Kotto unsuccessfully attempting to hail a cab in New York City -- repeatedly being rejected for a white felon Moore brought in for the experiment. Oh, and the hilarious invasion of Republican haven Cobb County (in Georgia) that leads to Moore coming face to face with a none-too-pleased Newt Gingrich.

For those readers who somehow missed "TV Nation" during its original run (not a difficult task), Adventures... will seem fresh, daring and funny. And if you were a huge fan, the episode and segment guide will be a valued companion. The rest of us, though, the ones who used to watch the show but don't exactly obsess about what went on in Episode 14, Adventures in a TV Nation is a mildly satisfying book that relies way too heavily on recycled material, as does Downsize This. Maybe the discount shelf is actually Moore's reward for the minimal effort he puts into writing his books.