I’m going to be the cheese that stands alone on this one, and I’m ok with that but I thought I should warn you. I know this is a much beloved book by many Cannonballers however, I find myself extremely underwhelmed by it. A large resounding meh is about all I can work up for it, and if I’m honest for The Bloggess and her blog. Which is probably an indication that this book really wasn’t for me in the first place.
So yes, this is a collection of essays from Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, and they’re all over the map so far as content goes. I suspect there’s supposed to be the unifying theme of mental illness tying them together, but it’s a tenuous theme at best. And I don’t know what to say really except that I just didn’t really enjoy them. In fact, I decided to just give up the book about half-way through. I wasn’t enjoying enough of the essays, and I was dreading picking the book up again. The point where you dread picking the book up is the point where you just stop reading it.
So the question is- why didn’t this book work for me? I mean, some of the essays are amusing; though the ratio of funny to non-funny essays leans heavily to the non-funny side. Of course, whether you find the essays funny is something that will vary from person to person. There’s also the fact that Lawson just sounds like an exhausting person to be around, it was exhausting just to read about her exploits and I can’t imagine actually living that kind of life. And I don’t mean exhausting because of her mental issues, I mean exhausting because it feels like she is always on and always performing and like someone is constantly screaming for my attention. Those kind of people annoy me and stress me out and, ironically for this book, make my anxiety spike.
Basically, this book just wasn’t for me. I kind of knew that going in, I’ve only been a tangential fan of Lawson’s blog and she’s not someone whose blog I can lose hours in, but I gave it a shot. I’m sure there are many more of you who will love this book. And you should read it. I’ll pass.
I’ll stand with you. I haven’t read this one but I did not like her previous book at all, I couldn’t even finish it…
I’m really glad I’m not the only person who just doesn’t enjoy her writing.
You definitely aren’t alone. I didn’t make it through the second chapter. I wanted to like it because there were so many rave reviews, but your paragraph about her being exhausting sums it up. I couldn’t articulate why it didn’t work for me at the time, but you are dead on.
Thanks! One of the things I’ve loved most about doing reviews for my Cannonball is finding people who have a similar experience with a book that I do. I honestly think this book could work for a lot of people, I am not one of them.
You are not alone. I recently bought a Kindle edition during a one-day sale ($2.99) based on the Cannonball reviews and wish I hadn’t gotten it, truthfully. I’m not laughing and agree with your assessment of Lawson: She is exhausting, My introverted self just says, “I can’t.”
That’s exactly what happened to me. I saw it was on sale and I knew it had many good reviews so I bought it. Bah.