I really need to start keeping track of who recommends which books to me, because I no longer have any idea why I read “Apathy and Other Small Victories,” and I want to thank the person who turned me on to it. So if that person is reading this, consider yourself thanked.

“Apathy and Other Small Victories,” by Paul Neilan, is a slim, sardonic novel about a shiftless man in his late 20s who, like so many of his generation, views the world with laziness, irony, scorn, and apathy. He has a lame job at an insurance company (though he mostly just sits in the bathroom and naps all day), and he drinks constantly. He’s currently having sex with his landlord’s wife to avoid having to pay rent. (He’s as puzzled by that arrangement as you are.) And then one day the deaf woman who works at his dentist’s office is killed, and the police seem to think he did it. He didn’t, of course, but can he muster the energy to care enough to prove it?

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It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to spotlight another “Snide Remarks” Classic as part of our year-long celebration of the column’s 10th anniversary. This week’s entry is a carnivorous item called “Meat the Press” (#143, Jan. 12, 2001). It deals with the all-you-can-eat meat restaurant Rodizio Grill, along with mall food and other tantalizing subjects. I’m pretty sure none of the specific places mentioned are still there at University Mall, where they were six years ago, but the jokes are still are fresh and tasty as ever! Yum-yum!