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Will Ferguson - Happiness
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1307
Now I've read Will before, and to my surprise quite liked him. So when I found this at a garage sale I was pleased, a bit of light reading, something to pass the time away from the computer...
But it was disappointing. Very disappointing. Exactly what I had feared when I read his first book. Jocular, filled with the kind of banter that perpetually falls flat, almost as if it were trying too hard to be funny. Large themes handled with small characters and witless dialogue.
The premise is that an editor (Edwin de Valu) for a publishing house (Panderic) publishes a piece of rubbish called "What I learned on the Mountain", a self help book that will cure everything from obesity, smoking, self image, finances, etc, only this self help book works and the plot centers around the mayhem that ensues. There's potential here.
And I read it and I read it, hoping it would get better, a satire on the Self Help and New Age movement, the satirical observations only slimly veiled, (The "Chicken Broth" series, for example), the occasional stabs at insight all but damned, then, when realizing it wouldn't get better, at best peaking at "Mildly amusing, but I've started it now and had better finish...."
Examining the cover. Published by Penguin, he's come up in the world, a plain red-white striped cover, this from the back jacket:
"Light Blue for big ideas Green for crime Orange for fantastic fiction"
Fantastic in this instance obviously means "In no ways related to reality....' and is in no way is to be interpreted as a reflection on the quality.
The funny thing is, he can write. He can clearly express good ideas, there are good ideas in the book, but their development, the dialogue, the characters, all, well...
Never mind. Ironic in that while satirizing the publishing industry for publishing any drek provided it sells, the prose in this book sets forth to prove the point
Despite it's attractive cover I'd give it a single rotten banana peel. Don't slip up and buy it.
Multi-Family Garage Sale
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1887
I'm supposed to be going to pick up my cheque, but I'm waylaid by the many garage sale signs along the way. And stopping in, filling bags, returning home to unload, the fever returns, it's been months since I've been garage saling, finances have forbidden, they still forbid it but I have some loose change, one doesn't pay the rent with loose change, but one can buy some temporary distractions, ....
And I keep going, nowhere near picking up my cheque but canvassing the neighborhood in ever growing spirals...those few advertised garages sales have been cancelled without notice, but others have sprung up in their place.
There's one, a "Multi-Family" garage sale. I find a few books, nothing really, but then there's this one...
"How to achieve Multiple Orgasms Every Time"
Now I have absolutely no use whatsoever for this, rare enough I have even single orgasms. But I pick it up, curious, and begin to flip through it. I ask the lady running the sale
"This Yours?"
She nods somewhat sheepishly.That's the thing about Multi-Family garage sales, they allow you to unload the most intimate and personal rubbish without directly accepting responsibility. Want to unload some old and crusty penthouse magazines? Heavily used "Massage Wands"? Books about impotence, divorce, coping with adultry, herpes, overcoming drug addiction, haemorrhoids? Do it at the Multi-Family Garage Sale.
I flip the pages. They're filled with "Joy of Sex" type illustrations, poorly drawn pictures that somehow remove all of the appeal of sex.
"Does it work?" I ask ...
"Yes" she confesses.
"What about this technique?..." And I show her the illustration.
"Um..."
"If I had to take away one lesson from this book, what would it be?"
She's blushing and tongue tied. I continue.
"Don't all women have multiple orgasms anyways? Shouldn't need a book for this...Where's your husband?"
There are other customers, she's getting embarassed and as there's no more room in my bag I put it back, thank her for her patience and continue.
It's a good day. I mean good in a small way, some winter coats for my daughter, a couple of nintendo DS games for the boy, some miscellaneous books ("The Wisdom of Confuscious", a 40's edition with nicely embossed cover). And there's the helmet. Pictured above, modelled by me. A helicopter pilots helmet. I wear it now like a bike helmet, visor down, probably not roadworthy (but it'd save your life if you fell from 10, 000 feet out of the sky, go figure), carry it into StarBucks when I meet my eccentric friends, explain that I've just parked my chopper on the roof/around the corner/ just out of sight and if only they'd brought their helmets I could have taken them for a spin.....
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1141
It's been reviewed to death. A fine read, well drawn characters, especially that of Madame Bovary, one still recognizes her today...
Jon Ronson - The Men who Stare at Goats
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1216
Beginning with "This is a True Story" and we journey quicker and quicker down the rabbit hole of "Military Intelligence". In specific, the divisions that covertly employ psy and paranormal ops. Highly amusing, and (frighteningly enough) not even slightly implausible. Which it should be, given the absurd events and histories it narrates, but it's not. I've heard most of these things before, parroted as fact...While the miracles are uncertain, the witnesses are legion. Especially amusing is the narrator's (Ronson's) dry tone as he interviews his subjects.
A throwaway read, but worthwhile nonetheless. I'd give it 30 goats and 3 hamsters. All live.
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