Here it is, your 3 hours and 46 minutes of Zen!

Thanks to the mighty fine folks at audible.com, I was able to hear this book before even Amazon could quick-ship it to my door, or anyone's door, for that matter, having obtained an exclusive pre-release that I jumped all over like a 10-year-old on a trampoline after a few cans of Red Bull.

Even though, the writing is excellent, having the audiobook makes it seem like a daily show special episode on the basics of democracy, except they don't have to bleep out the swearing. And swear they do; even the "voices" of historical figures don't hold back, as my absolute favorite quotes from the book describing the motivations for the Boston Tea Party indicate:
"Motherfuckers love their tea", followed a few minutes later by, "Fuck with a motherfucker's tea, and shit be ON.' both read in a pristine victorian accent worthy of the Queen, or at least a Queen impersonator. Not afaid to poke fun at the founding fathers, every time Jefferson says anything, he's got to mention something about getting some "sweet, brown sugar." Dayam, Tom! You're ribald.

The book traces the roots of our democracy back to ancient Greece, through the revolutionary war, the civil war, and our current election climate, and beyond to predictions of our government of the future, sadly though, they don't think the doop ever comes to fruition.

The book is read by the current cast, including Samantha Bee who chimes in every so often to tell us how things compare in her native Canada. Steven Colbert ("it's french, bitch") ends each section with discussion questions and "class activities" some of which caught me so off-guard, I was afraid I would have a car accident. Acutally, listening in the car is kind of weird, you get strange looks for laughing uproariously. Would be really fun to take to the gym. Since it is abridged, I might have to buck up for the paperback, once it comes out, to read what I might have missed.

So, again, near the shortest book and what might be one of the longest reviews, its 2 thumbs up, 4 stars out of 4, etc, so preorder it now. Because if you don't, you are a facist.

Upadate: The book got a mention today on one of my favorite blogs, BoingBoing.net