Published books

Avoiding the Disaster Date

**Avoiding the Disaster Date** is Michael Pollick’s wickedly insightful tour through the minefield known as modern romance. In this collection of sharp, funny, and occasionally too‑real essays, Pollick dissects the walking red flags, conversational catastrophes, emotional acrobats, and well‑meaning weirdos who turn dating into a full‑contact sport. With warmth, wit, and a talent for naming the chaos exactly as it is, he offers a survival guide for anyone who’s ever sat across a table and thought, “Oh no… this is going in a book.”

Tales From The Coffee Pot

**Tales From The Coffee Pot** is the book your mug would write if it finally got fed up with your life choices and decided to spill everything. It’s a warm, caffeinated anthology of micro‑myths, domestic misadventures, and the kind of spiritual revelations that only happen when you’re one sip away from either enlightenment or heartburn. Inside this collection, you’ll meet jittery prophets, overworked drip machines, childhood candies that lied to you, and the occasional detective who brews coffee like a cry for help. Every essay is a postcard from the border between “before coffee” and “after coffee,” where the air is thick with steam, nostalgia, and questionable decisions. Perfect for anyone who has ever stared into a coffee pot and thought, “There’s a story in there, and it’s probably about me.”

Michael Pollick's Proving Ground

A compilation of author and humorist Michael Pollick's essays, microshort stories and poetry.

The Keepinnit Reels: Volume 1

The Keepinnit Reels: Volume 1 is where the whole analog experiment begins — a mixtape of essays soaked in sepia, memory, and the kind of humor that sneaks up on you like a late‑night radio signal. It’s warm, weird, and unmistakably human, a reminder that slow stories still matter in a fast world.

The REAL High School Survival Guide

**The REAL High School Survival Guide** is Michael Pollick’s hilariously honest tour through the hallways, homerooms, and hormonal minefields of American high school. In this collection of sharp, nostalgic humor essays, Pollick revisits the teachers who terrified us, the friends who saved us, the crushes that scrambled our brains, and the unwritten rules that every teenager somehow knew. It’s part memoir, part mischief, and part field manual for anyone who ever tried to survive adolescence with dignity intact — and failed gloriously.

The First Time I Ever Watched...

Everyone remembers their first time — with a classic movie, that is. The First Time I Ever Watched… revisits those iconic cinematic rites of passage: the horse head, Rosebud, and all the scenes you pretended to understand long before you actually did. Sharp, funny, and painfully honest, it’s a tour through the films that turned casual viewers into lifelong obsessives.

The Stowbilly Chronicles

**The Stowbilly Chronicles** is Michael Pollick’s love letter to growing up Midwestern when seatbelts were optional, TV antennas were a family sport, and childhood freedom stretched from the cul‑de‑sac to the county line. In this collection of sharp, warm, and wickedly funny humor essays, Pollick revisits the 60s, 70s, and 80s through the eyes of a Stow, Ohio kid navigating station wagons, schoolyard legends, basement rec rooms, and the peculiar magic of small‑town life. It’s nostalgia with bite, memory with mischief, and the Midwest exactly as it felt — unpolished, hilarious, and absolutely alive.

The REAL Dog Owner's Survival Guide

The REAL Dog Owner’s Survival Guide is a tactical briefing for civilians living under canine command. Inside: behavioral intel, crisis protocols, morale‑boosting humor, and survival strategies for every stage of dog‑induced chaos. Read it before your dog does.

The Zero-Sugar Keepinnit Reels

The Zero‑Sugar Keepinnit Reels is a tactical briefing for readers who prefer their nostalgia unsweetened. Expect concise intel, dry humor, and analog‑grade insights delivered without embellishment. A streamlined companion for anyone navigating modern chaos with old‑school instincts.

The REAL College Survival Guide

The REAL College Survival Guide cuts through the glossy brochure fantasy and gets straight to the truth: weird roommates, cafeteria roulette, 2 a.m. panic‑studying, and the fine art of pretending you read the syllabus. Sharp, funny, and brutally relatable, it’s the handbook every freshman wishes they had before move‑in day.