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(Once in a while, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)

Who's your date today? Everyone Loves You When You're Dead by Neil Strauss.

Where'd you go? Lunchbox Laboratory, in their new South Lake Union location.

What'd you eat? The Homage to Dick's Deluxe, with a side of tater tots ($13.99).

How was the food? Incredible! They've somehow managed to make a burger that tastes almost exactly like a Dick's Deluxe, but is also worth every penny of its decidedly un-Dick's-like price. The tater tots were uninspired—after the alchemical wonders of the burger, I was hoping for something more than just a plain, straightforward tater tot—but the dipping sauces, especially the peppery Satan's Ketchup, made them exceptional. I'm glad to have Lunchbox Laboratory in a new, larger, more traditional restaurant space open for dinner and lunch. Not every fancy burger place is worth the price, but this is a motherfucking meal. Throw in some beers and friends you've got yourself a night out.

What does your date say about itself? It's a collection of the best parts of Strauss's celebrity and musician interviews through the years, cut and pasted in a way to make the whole thing have a strange kind of narrative.

Is there a representative quote? "Since I was eighteen, I've been under orders from magazines and newspapers to step into the lives of musicians, actors, and artists, and somehow find out who they really are underneath the mask they present to the public."

Will you two end up in bed together? Well, not really. Don't get me wrong—as much as I may personally detest Strauss (he's the guy who wrote The Game, that smarmy pickup manual for the Maxim crowd)—he's a very good interviewer. I was surprised how many of these interviews I had read and loved when I read them in magazines years ago, way before I ever bothered to look at the name of the interviewer. But a bunch of celebrity interviews, no matter how artfully you arrange them (the structure, splicing interviews together into ten "acts," is the most interesting part of the book) are still just a bunch of celebrity interviews. This isn't a book to absorb all at once, to read like a normal book. This is a book for flipping around when you're on the toilet.