Humor columnist releases second volume of work
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – She’s irreverent. She’s outspoken. Most of all, she makes people laugh.

For 12 years now, life-long Oxford Hills resident Sharon Bouchard has shared with western Maine newspaper readers her view of the world in her weekly humor column, “The Way I See It.”

First published in the Sun Journal, and now appearing in the Bethel Citizen, the column found a broad audience by finding humor in dealing with life’s everyday frustrations and annoyances.

Like dust bunnies. And voice mail. And pantyhose that don’t fit.

Bouchard’s first collection of columns, released in softcover form in 1995, sold more than 1,800 copies. Many local folks bought it to give as a gift to their relatives living away.

“My first book went all over the world, and since I very seldom get out of the Oxford Hills, that’s very satisfying,” she quips in the self-deprecating style that has endeared her to her readers.

This week Bouchard, who is the advertising sales representative at the Sun Journal’s Norway office, is releasing volume two of “The Best of the Way I See It,” gathering 39 of her best columns of the past several years.

Like volume one, titled “Techno-Dopes, White Knuckle Driving and Kick the Cat Mornings,” the new book draws from the titles of the first three columns: “Sticky Issues, I’ve Never Burned My Bra & Cows Don’t Drink Coffee.”

Bouchard’s columns sometimes explore topics people typically don’t talk about, such as “Menopause Made Fun.” But she goes for the humor, not the shock value.

“Irony is something I totally enjoy,” said Bouchard, 55, who grew up in Norway and lives in Paris. “I’m not sure I would cope as well with my daily life if I didn’t have a sense of humor.”

Laughing is good exercise, she writes in “Some Truths of Life,” one of the book’s more serious columns. “It’s like jogging on the inside.”

She loves writing, and draws heavily from her own experiences as a wife, mother and grandmother of the baby boom generation. She also draws ideas from just looking around, or reading the paper, “and finding the theater of the absurd in our daily living.”

Sometimes the columns percolate awhile in the back of her mind. Other days, the column almost writes itself, such as “Blame It On The Full Moon,” about the day she took her husband, Henry, shopping for a bra on the full moon.

The battle of the sexes – with men almost always losing – is a favorite theme in her columns, one which often elicits feedback from both male and female readers. Volume two includes several such columns, including “Blanket Battles, No Sleep,” and “It Must Be Great To Be A Man.”

Housewives enjoy it when she picks on men, she said.

Men like it too. “I’m always amazed that I get some pretty good feedback from men.”

Her biggest reward in writing the columns, and publishing them as collections, comes when she hears how they’ve touched someone’s life. “One woman who suffers from manic depression told me that on those days that are really bad for her, she pulls out the book, and it helps her get through her day,” she said.

Volume II of “The Best of The Way I See It” costs $6 including tax, and is available at the Sun Journal’s Norway office, several Main Street businesses in Norway, and The Bethel Citizen on Main Street in Bethel. Volume I is also available for $3. The set costs $8.

The book may also be purchased at Perham’s of West Paris, Ranger’s Market in Paris, and Crystal Spring Farm in Oxford.

Book signings have been set for Nov. 21 and Dec. 7, respectively, at L.F. Pike & Son and Western Auto on Main Street in Norway. The book will also be offered for sale at the Nov. 22 DECA Craft Fair at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, Route 26, Paris.

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com

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