John Burbidge has aimed his brush, roller, and spray gun at everything from ritzy mansions to trashy trailers. He's gone underground to paint sewage-treatment plants and risked death to paint factory ceilings. He has no doubt inhaled enough noxious dust and paint fumes to shorten his life.

But he's not dead yet. And the captivating characters he has encountered along the way have more than offset the toils of painting for a living. Ex-cons, addicts, drifting college grads, even a guy with a hole in his head-that's your typical paint crew, bonded only by the fact that they're caught in a job society thinks is for simpletons. In Watching Paint Dry, John Burbidge scrapes beneath the surface of painting's reputation for monotony while intimately portraying the men and women who craft the backdrop to our civilization.

"Informative, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking . . . this is a book you will want to recommend to everyone you know."