It's true: this book is funny (unless you are fervently religious in which case you will probably find not to be funny). It is also annoying, repetitious and single minded. Bo Fowler is a creative writing instructor and this book comes off as an over-long experiment in creative writing. While I like the satirical premise of the "metaphysical betting shops" I found the deliberately choppy and repetitious style to be very irritating. This book would have made a nice essay or short story but instead we get a stretched out novel which tries way too hard to be oh so clever with too few ideas. Contrary to what one reviewer wrote, I would say this is a tough book to read-not because of its subject matter but because of its ultra choppy style.

For someone brought up in a Christian home like myself, this book clearly has the potential to easily offend the devout and the hypersensitive. Having a very independent spirit myself, however, the book tagged my curiosity. Chronicled in the pages of this Bo Fowler novel is the adult life of agnostic Edgar Malroy, who reasons that you should believe enough in your religious standpoint to bet money on its absolute truth. Edgar rakes in ungodly amounts of cash (no pun intended) on this idea as several decide that betting on their faith is the best way to profess it.

However, just as many are opposed to the idea, including a shapely Christian woman named Sophia whom Edgar falls deeply and madly in love despite proclaiming her the nuttiest of all nuts. The indubitable success of Scepticism, Inc. causes an enormous holy war involving all the world's religions to start, and all the while, an automated shopping cart looks for God and answers at the top of Mt. Everest.

Attacking mostly Catholicism and Christianity, Fowler holds no punches on any religion or denomination, which is no doubt much to the dismay of the more conservative followers of any religion who pick this book up. If you appreciate the blatant satire, however, you will find a book that, with two parts consisting of 50 chapters each, surprisingly comes off as easily digestible rather than choppy and is quite funny. However, the book doesn't start winding down until very far in, meaning it has to contrive itself and settle for a rather unpleasant and unsatisfactory ending. The biggest laughs come from the intense disagreements and battles between the two Popes - yes, you read that right - and the musings of the shopping cart as he talks with Edgar Malroy. If the book offends you, you shouldn't compromise yourself by finishing it in the first place. Only if your most metaphysical fancies are tickled should you explore it more deeply.

First off, I don't give five stars. Except here. And its not because this is the finest piece of literature I have ever read. It's just a very good, very funny book with a great deal of heart.

Scepticism, Inc. is a look at the ways in which religion makes people act and manifests itself in society. Through farcical extremes, Fowler puts religion and human nature under a microscope. And its funny...and true.

It's very hard to review something like this without giving away the magic. It's not for everyone - those with strict religious beliefs might not appreciate the fun Fowler pokes, but for those with open minds (or even those with closed minds with good senses of humor), Scepticism Inc is worth the read.

Vonnegut and Adams are two of my favorite authors, and -- perhaps more importantly -- I loved Bo Fowler's other book, Scepticism, Inc. Very sadly, though, I found The Astrological Diary of God to be tough to even finish. It's too focused on masturbation, the characters are otherwise not very compelling, and the story seems to lose itself halfway through the book. That said, I highly encourage readers who like Vonnegut and similar authors to check out Scepticism, Inc. and, personally, intend to read whatever Bo Fowler publishes next.

If Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and the late Douglas Adams contrived to have a crack baby together, Bo Fowler might have been the result. This wacky successor to Fowler's astonishing Scepticism Inc. delights in poking blasphemous fun at the notion of God, modern cosmology, and the cast-offs of Japanese culture after World War II. The plot concerns a morbidly obese delusional failed kamikaze pilot who thinks he creates galaxies each time he masturbates. He winds up being tried by the U.N. for having littered the universe with enough much excess mass to kill Time itself, but who cares? In manic fast-paced prose, Fowler skewers religion, astrology, and the conventions of science fiction -- in all, not a bad day's work. The philosophically-trained Fowler persists in mistaking the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (truth in reviewing notice: one of my employers)for an atheist organization. But the notion of skeptics across the world inflating their bright orange life jackets each time public credulity offends them is priceless all the same. The lists of historical events that are mystically "parallel" from an astrological point of view are priceless too. Blasphemous, superficially nonsensical fun -- highly recommended.