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New book by the Onion a humorous compilation of satire

Book encapsulates years of past parody and fun

To find the finest in news reporting, one does not necessarily have to pick up a paper at the local newsstand.

Titled the Onion's Finest News Reporting: volume one, this compilation of articles showcases the dead-on satire that has made the Onion so popular.

First started in 1988 as an alternative newspaper with an emphasis on humor, the Onion is one of the most visited sites on the Internet and has a weekly print circulation of 350,000.

The humor magazine reads much like a warped version of journalistic publications, and the Onion's Finest News Reporting: volume one encapsulates the best examples of its satire and comedy.

Readers will be easily taken in by the brazen headlines - "Mr. T to Pity Fool," "Man Has Amazing Ass" and "Christ Returns to NBA," to name a few.

Along with accompanying - and quite twisted - articles, there are features such as "Ask a Navy SEAL," "I Enjoy Being Battery" and "Seize Him! You Fools, He's Getting Away!" written by Gorzo, the Mighty Emperor of the Universe.

There are also informational graphics, including a diagram of food ingestion using a high-viscosity mayonnaise, as well as photos depicting such things from the torching of Atlanta by Civil War enthusiasts to "Infants Only" New York trash bin.

The book is divided into chapters, with T. Herman Zweibel, the fictional 132-year-old publisher of the Onion, introducing each's intended satire. Zweibel explains how the articles in each section won awards like the Pierce County Herald's Bi-Annual Cheese Curd Festival Journalism Prize and, of course, the "Pulitzer."

For long-time readers of the Onion, however, the Zweibel introductions will be the only new reading material. The rest of the book is just a compilation of articles taken from issues of the Onion from 1996 to 1998, repackaged in paperback format.

The previous book release from the Onion, Our Dumb Century was a New York Times No. 1 best-seller and 1999 winner of the Thurber Prize for American humor.

This sets the mark high for Finest News Reporting. Fortunately, the book manages to meet that mark and offers something different and new - a satire of newspapers everywhere.

In the opinion of the magazine, new and different is good, as it keeps things from becoming the cookie-cutter conformity that runs counter to the individual spirit.

Still, some readers may feel the Onion is no more than a funny magazine with cuss words thrown in for good measure.

Either way, reading the Onion's Finest News Reporting: volume one is an entertaining way to spend leisure time.

The articles in Finest News Reporting are some of the funniest the Onion has to offer and should please those who have read the articles before, as well as those who haven't.

At a price of $16 and a length of 165 pages, this greatest hits compilation of humor and satire is worth it.