By Brendan O’Reilly

There are two kinds of autobiographical works. In one, readers pick up a book because they are already interested in the subject’s life. In the second, it’s reading the book that leads readers to care about the subject. “My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith” is the former.

For fans of Kevin Smith’s films (most recently “Clerks II” and “Jersey Girl”) the opportunity to see the doldrums of his daily life and get in his head is welcome. Others will turn the pages thinking, “Why did I just spend a minute of my life reading about a fat guy defecating, having sex with his too-hot-for-him wife and getting fast food?” If they were to stick with it, however, they would find that Smith’s “Boring-Ass Life” does have more to offer.

The diary began online and continues at silentbobspeaks.com, although, those who wish to subvert the whole “paying” thing will only be able to find about 2 percent of the contents of “My Boring-Ass Life” still online-have to make those fans hand over their cash somehow.

Though Smith is ever grateful toward his fans for what they provide him-his house, his car and his wife-he actually credits someone else as his motivation to keep updating the diary. It was with his daughter in mind that he logged his daily activities, assuming that once he dies, his daughter should know how human he was, rather than how great he was.

Though his intention of keeping a daily account of his life slowly turned into a blog that offered “unasked for opinions on any number of subjects,” he still says it served its purpose of “giving my kid a year (or so) in the life of her pater familias.”

True to the book’s title, Smith gives his daughter more than she’ll ever want to know about her own dad. No matter how curious she ever gets about her father as she ages, Harley Smith could go on living not knowing how often he took a “dumpski” or had afternoon sex with her mother. If she turns out to top 300-pounds someday like her father, reading his book will have her pissed too. In addition to her presumed genetic predisposition to obesity, her parents give her so much fast food that Morgan Spurlock should make a documentary about them.

Not everything lives up to the title of the book. An entry prompted by the two-year anniversary of the death of Smith father’s is one of the more interesting passages, and explains why Smith wants his daughter to have so much insight into his life. It is one of the rare instances in the first half of the book that he breaks from a run-down of what he did between waking up and falling asleep to TiVo and writes about a memory from his past and how it still impacts him.

It’s in these instances that Smith does his best writing. He recounts his father’s last day on earth and reprints the eulogy he gave at the funeral. The importance of family and friends in his life, and his love for them, is inspiring. If the whole book were like this, it would have a much broader appeal. So much of it is restricted to his hardcore fans.

Without viewing his seven films and his Q&A tour DVDs (“An Evening With Kevin Smith” and “Even Harder”), many readers would feel out of the loop. Listening to his weekly hour-or-so long podcast “SModcast” would help readers’ understanding as well. In “My Boring-Ass Life,” he alludes to stories from his high school days which he explains in full on “SModcast” with his pal and producer Scott Mosier.

Instead of watching hours of DVDs and listings to dozens of hours of podcasts, there is another way to immediately find oneself interested in Smith and the people who surround him: skipping ahead to “Me and My Shadow.” The 67 pages are reason enough to buy the entire 470 autobiography. In nine lengthy entries, Smith sets the record straight for the tabloid-fare story of Jason Mewes’ heroin addiction and recovery. Mewes, the Jay to Smith’s Silent Bob, followed in his mother’s footsteps by falling into a love-hate relationship with heroin, as well as other drugs. Anyone that has never been close to an addict will have a good notion of what its like after reading such an intimate telling of Smith helping Mewes kick drugs. Smith’s pain and disappointment in watching his friend fall off the wagon again and again (and again and again and again, etc.) is heart wrenching.

“My Boring-Ass Life” comes recommended for Smith fans, who will not be disappointed. It is also recommended for anyone who’s has/had a father, is a father, has a wife or has a friend.