CHICAGO DAYS / HOBOKEN NIGHTS by...

CHICAGO DAYS / HOBOKEN NIGHTS by Daniel Pinkwater (Addison-Wesley: $8.95; 168 pp . ). Vanity meets inanity in these essays delivered on National Public Radio by children’s author Daniel Pinkwater. Unlike other commentators on “All Things Considered,” Pinkwater doesn’t really comment on anything--he just recounts details of his life, blithely assuming that the audience cares. His self-conscious attempts at humor have a ponderous, effortful quality that suggests an elephant trying to do needlepoint. In one piece, Pinkwater rejects the charge of commercialism with the confession, “I have always produced lots of worthless junk--just it wasn’t commercial.” “Chicago Days” shows he’s still producing it.