cover image The Facts of Life: And Other Dirty Jokes

The Facts of Life: And Other Dirty Jokes

Willie Nelson. Random House (NY), $21.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50731-1

Beginning with a request to preteens to ""please only read every third word,"" Willie Nelson proceeds to reveal his thoughtful, hilarious, raunchy inner world in his memoir The Facts of Life: And Other Dirty Jokes. As the title promises, the book is full of jokes, often preceded by no more introduction than, ""Rinky wanted me to tell you this joke...."" And, yes, some of them are fairly dirty. Other topics Nelson ruminates on include the stock market, the relative amounts of money Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan make from endorsements, the origins of the term ""Outlaw Music,"" the virtues of dairy products and his favorite Biblical lines (e.g., ""`Physician, heal thyself'""). Non sequitur follows kooky non sequitur in this delightfully irreverent glimpse into the mind of an American classic. Fans and readers with ADD will love it. Photos not seen by PW. ( on sale Jan. 8)