- That Wolfdogg will probably have his suggestion rights for Rock and Roll Bookclub revoked again. His rights were revoked sometime in June of 07 because he suggested A Boy Called Freebird, a book so heinous and unreadable that I didn’t make it past page 40.
- Just because someone writes something funny for TV (Will Forte, Stephen Colbert, Andy Richter, et. al.) does not mean they can write a funny, fresh, uncliched essay about dating or relationships.
- I really don’t like Neal Pollack’s writing.
- You don’t need to know the difference between losing/loosing or couldn’t care less and could care less to get an essay published in this book.
- Obviously nobody but me actually read the essays in Things I’ve Learned From the Women Who’ve Dumped Me, because they are so riddled with errors and bad cliches that it’s made me question the future of publishing.
- When I started reading this book I was afraid it would get my feminist hackles up. Instead it just got my really? really? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? hackles up. Never before have so many hackneyed, predictable, and utterly pointless essays been gathered together between the cover of a book.
- I feel bad for Tom McCarthy, Dan Savage, Patton Oswalt, and Sam Lipsyte because they wrote funny and meaningful pieces that deserve better than this piece of shit book.
- McCarthy’s piece called “Don’t Leave Too Much Room for the Holy Spirit” is so good that I read it twice. It’s about finding letters from his bible-camp crush and a square dance. It’s really fucking good.
- None of the essays in Things I Learned From the Women Who’ve Dumped Me is actually about anything a dude might have learned from being dumped.
- 97% of the essays feel like a college-newspaper column written the night of deadline because you had a giant hole to fill in the paper.
- I hated this book so much it made me mad. You should avoid it at all costs, unless you like poorly-written, poorly-edited crap by famous people.
Tags: 52 Books in 2008, are you kidding me, Neal Pollack, Rock & Roll Bookclub, things I learned
Posted on Sun, 30 March 2008 at 5:00 pm
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Thanks for heads up. I tend to avoid collections like these just for the reasons you mentioned. Nice to hear three or four of the essays were good. I’ve read one of Oswald’s before – he *is* a good writer.
30 Mar 08 at 5:38 pm #McCarthy is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, his new nonfiction book on TinTin (Tintin and the Secret of Literature) has consumed my weekend.
30 Mar 08 at 7:04 pm #Thanks for the heads up on this book and Persepolis. I have been looking at both and now I know which is worth reading.
30 Mar 08 at 10:42 pm #see, now you went and made that review so fun and enjoyable that i will have to check out the book so i can feel like an insider.
31 Mar 08 at 8:54 am #Bakiwop, don’t call me when you’re in the corner of the library weeping about how much time you wasted reading this book.
31 Mar 08 at 10:45 am #Couldn’t disagree more. Probably the worst review I’ve ever read. Strong work.
01 May 08 at 3:42 pm #