My mother gushed over this book. So, when I was stuck in an airport bookstore, stocking up on books to use as mind fodder to distract me during the hop between the coasts, and I chanced across a copy, I took the plunge. I wasn’t excited about the purchase, but felt guarded optimism that it would equate to several hours of relieved tedium. I could tell from a cursory examination that it passed two of my mandatory criteria, and put my faith in my mothers judgment for the third.
Just for the record, my criteria are:
1) The font is big and easy to read. My eyesight is not good.
2) It’s small–will fit in my pocket, will not strain my wrist holding.
3) The writing doesn’t make my flesh crawl.
Rarely has a book succeeded so well on criteria 1 and 2 and then fall flatter on its face on 3.
I should have known better than to trust the recommendation of my mother–after all, her track record of recommendations for things like Girls I Should Date is mixed. I should have also noticed the “Soon to be a major motion picture” on the cover–unless you’re Nick Hornby, this is usually an indication that something horrible is about to occur.
As far as I can tell, the author never actually follows any of the recipes; the book is a listing of all the corners she cuts because she doesn’t have the right tools, right ingredients, right husband, right friends, right parents, right apartment, right commute, right kitchen, right job, her cat is psychotic, and her truck is unreliable. So, Julie, why don’t you step away from the computer, clean up your life, and then come back and write about that? I mean, if I want to read about self-loathing people who create their own problems, refuse to face them, and dig themselves deeper and deeper into lameness and mediocrity via a failed and half-hearted obsession to achieve a completely arbitrary and meaningless goal, I don’t need to pay money for it. I can read about that sort of thing for free. I have web access.
To be fair, I gave up on page 150 and didn’t finish the book. It might have gotten better after that, but I didn’t stick around to find out. When the pilot said it was OK to use electronic devices, I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again. It lost out to “Firefly” reruns on my iPod. I can’t say much more than that. Maybe it got better at the end, unlike Firefly.
But lots and lots of people thought this book was pretty peachy. If you can explain this to me, I am your apt pupil.
