“Nearly ½ of all people in the United States are Torsos.”) Other sections, like “Charts and Graphs” and “Drawings”, take over for the giant notepad in Demetri’s act (e.g. Some sections of the book such as “Ideas and Opinions” and “Statistics” serve as clever framing devices for delivering one-liners (e.g. Demitri’s book somehow encompasses all of these skills, deftly applying them to the page in a definitive mission statement. Finally, there was a section of jokes set to ruminative guitar or whimsical accordion a trope also employed by contemporary Nick Thune and the late Mitch Hedberg. Another part of the special featured the comedian’s clever, absurdist drawings on a giant notepad - the imaginative wit of his ideas practically demanding a visual accompaniment. The first part of that special was straightforward stand-up, and for Demetri Martin, that meant mostly one-liners in a style indebted to Steven Wright, but informed by his own wry, gently self-deprecating everyman persona. This Is a Book By Demetri Martin is divided into multiple modes, just like the Comedy Central special that made the author’s name. There’s much more than jokes on display here, though. (That the author designed the jacket and cover artwork himself suggests that this process was a labor of love.) Several self-aware touches adorn the book, poking fun at the medium: a sly mock-tutorial, “How to read this book,” a page that is blank except for the sentence, “This page unintentionally left blank.” From the title on down, this is clearly a product of the mind responsible for the stand-up album, These Are Jokes. There has always been a matter-of-fact post-modernism to the way Demetri Martin packages himself, and his literary debut is a remarkable translation of that unique aesthetic into book form. The title is not the only reason, however, why it could not have possibly been written by anyone else. The book was written by Demetri Martin, of course. This is a review of a book entitled This is a Book by Demetri Martin.