John Warner (1)Recensioni

I honestly don't know why I bothered reading this whole thing. Even my daughter told me, before she gave it to me to read, that she couldn't get through it. Just stupid humor to illustrate his points about writing and the writing life, but even the humor was only mildly interesting. So, not helpful, and not enjoyable.

Not that funny. >:(

I think I'm going to use this as part of our homeschool English/Writing curriculum this school year.

Fondling Your Muse is a non-fiction title that provides advice to writers. It is described as a hands on guide to writing your very own New York Times best seller.

The Cover: I have a hardback copy of this book and the cover is awesome. It has a texture to it that looks like soft leather. The colour is good, trimmed with gold and the white font pops. It is a beautiful cover that drew me to the book straight away. I wouldn’t say that it screams ‘non-fiction writing guide’ to me, more like a book of poems or a religious text, however the title sparks interest and the sub-titles tell you exactly what the book is about.

The Good Stuff: The cover is awesome. The content itself is very tongue-in-cheek funny which you will enjoy if you like that sort of thing. The book does also have writing related information, which for the complete novice may be of some use.

The Bad Stuff: I was really disappointed with this book. The quality of the cover and its bindings gave me high hopes. I was sorely let down by the comedic style of writing, which had me questioning when the author was serious and when he was just fooling around. Maybe it’s me and my sense of humour, but I just didn’t get all the humour. Yes, I laughed in places, but I also thought it was ridiculous in places. I don’t mind a bit of humour, but I expect a certain level of sophistication from a non-fiction title, and this book just didn’t cut it for me.

Overall, you will get a laugh from this book, but you have to ask yourself ‘is that what I want?’ Honestly, I don’t usually get so snarky about books, maybe I was just having an off day, but I just felt like I wasted my time on this one. I really don’t want to waste more time reading it again to find out if that was the really case. So, if you’re keen, give it a go. You may love it and tell me just how wrong I am, but I’m only giving this 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks (and that's solely because I love the cover).

As someone who teaches in a writing-intensive discipline at the college level, and who has taught writing seminars in the past, I found myself nodding along with so much of what John Warner has to say here. The billions that have been pumped into standardised testing, private charter schools, ed-tech, etc., over the past thirty years or so haven't just been wasted—they've caused actual harm. In this, we are in absolute agreement.

I'm also not the person who needs to read this book. Why They Can't Write needs to find its way into the hands of the politicians who defund public education, the college administrators who pay comp/rhetoric instructors a pittance for a crushing workload, and my senior colleagues who sniff about "kids these days." The kids are all right; it's the system that's an unholy mess.

For my review please visit my blog: Martin's View: The Funny Man.

Reads like the best of "Shouts and Murmurs" and stories from the Onion. The tone and style of the parodies is spot on.

This was a goodreads.com first read contest win.

While so many people think this book is funny, I actually think it is a sad. The funny man (unknown name and I wonder why that is all he is known by) has everything before he made it big. He has a wife, child, home but to me that still was not enough for him. He had to have more. He had to come up with the next big thing to get noticed.

To me this book shows what can and possibly will happen when any of us think that what we have is not enough and want more. While this book was interesting I did not really like it. Maybe it has something to do with an ex-husband that had an addiction problem who knows.

This is my opinion and in no way reflects the book or the author. For your own opinion of the book please take the time to read this author's work. Who knows you might like it.

The bunnies and I give this book 3-Carrots.









As of December 2nd I have not received the copy I won in the goodreads.com first read

Up-date As of December 16, I still have not received my copy to this book. No reply from the person that listed it as a giveaway.

I received this book but date is unknown. I will write a review of this book before the new year.

Meh. And again I say - meh. And can I just say that I don't LIKE McSweeney's? Okay? I live in McSweeney's-land, I feel as if San Francisco is some sort of theme park of the mind for McSweeney's, and it just flat out leaves me cold. This collection is like David Letterman in prose -- lots of silly lists, lots of snarky pastiches of easy pop culture targets, sometimes with a meta level thrown in to please the grad students. I did laugh at the bad baby names, but don't waste my time calling this literature, okay? Go back and read James Thurber, and be amazed, amazed, at the command of prose style the man has in his best work, and the amount of literary reading you have to have done to fully enjoy what he's offering. You'll laugh, but it won't be hollow laughter.

This book is just what is purports to be - some of the best writing from the McSweeney's Internet Tendency site over the years. Obviously we'll all have different opinions on "the best" - there certainly are a few pieces in here that I didn't find interesting at all, or even very good, but there are others that I completely cracked up at. So if you like McSweeney's and the sort of things they publish, you'll probably enjoy reading through these ... and if you don't, there's a good chance you'll find this book less appealing.½

An unfunny comic rides an unfunny joke to spectacular fame. He overdoses on his ego and then does something very stupid. He’s charged with manslaughter, and pleads “not guilty by reason of celebrity.” Warner offers a blistering critique of American celebrity culture but remembers to make us laugh along the way. If a younger, tougher Larry David wrote a novel, it would be this book.

I really had fun with this book. It goes quickly and gets a bit odd - but it's a wonderful debut from an author who I've been waiting see a debut from since I first encountered his work some years ago. And I've been hearing about this book since I started following the Tournament of Books, so I'm thrilled to've finally had it in hand. It's a good read - and I can't wait to see what comes next.

First, some confessions: 1) I LOVE the title. I absolutely unapologetically LOVE and ADORE this title. Alone, it would have been enough for me to buy the book. 2) I used to share an office with the author, and since this book came out while I was in said office, I wanted to support the project (contrary to what jokes in the book might suggest, he did not push the book on me!). 3) I'm not a big reader of humor...in fact, I don't even watch many comedies. And, when it comes to slap-stick and/or dry humor, I generally stay away. Thus, without a doubt, I'm simply not the target audience for the book. (Well, except in that I love the title. I Really Love the title.)

In the end, I was amused. I was entertained and engaged enough to wander through the full book, and aware enough to realize that John's dry humor just isn't mine--many readers will find this laugh-out-loud funny and celebrate every page of irony and satire. Unfortunately, that's just not me. There are a Lot of one-liners in this book, and while most are funny, the piling of one on top of another ended up making it a slower read for me.

The point of all this as you try to figure out whether or not to pick it up? Well, it's a gorgeous book, and will likely make every writer guffaw repeatedly (particularly writers of fiction, admittedly), so it certainly wouldn't be a bad coffee table book or humorous gift. So, if you're looking for humor and jokes about writing and writers? Absolutely. On the other hand, if you take yourself too seriously, don't like dry humor, or are actually looking for in depth and sincere writing advice...well, you really ought to go elsewhere.

All that said, though, I'm not a humor person...and I'm still glad to have wandered my way through the book. So, perhaps I should simply say: if you write, wander through a chapter or two, and you'll know pretty quickly whether this will be a favorite or something to pass on by.

Some of these are very funny. I got the book so I could reread them. Some of them are sort of funny. Some are so-so. A good random road-trip read to pass the time.

Wrong gender, wrong age, wrong demographic. Could you please pass me that New Yorker?½

A well-written satire on becoming famous and what happens afterwards. The main character goes from struggling comic and devoted husband and dad to self-centered superstar - and then beyond. The book is spot on and snarky about the path upwards to fame, but becomes even more interesting after it all starts to inevitably fall apart. If you like some sarcasm and social commentary with your humor, you should enjoy this book.

Although this is nowhere near as side-splittingly wonderful (or as useful) as How Not to Write a Novel, it's still an amusing, chuckle-worthy parody of the genre of "writing advice" books. Middle-grade humor (by which I mean quality, not age) I guess.

Plot: Man is moderately funny. Funny man finds "hook" (does impressions with whole fist in mouth). Man becomes famous. Famous man overplays hook, becomes disenchanted. Man's life falls apart.

Book: Author is moderately funny. Author writes book with "hook" (fake autobiography of famous funny man). Author gets book contract. Author overplays hook, disenchanting reader. Book falls apart.

The thing is, maybe the author does this on purpose as some kind of postmodern critique of fame. I enjoyed the book until about the half way point. Then I stopped caring what happened. I'm not enamored enough with celebrity. When Lindsay Lohan plays out, I can turn the channel or stop reading the news about her. I should have done the same with this book. Instead I stuck with it hoping the book would redeem itself. Ultimately the book had as much hope for redemption as the funny man himself.

The author credits people who made the book possible. The list includes Howard Stern and Artie Lange. Perhaps that should have been an indication to me that I am not the intended audience.½

A collection of various short stories/essays/lists from the infamous McSweeney's magazine/website.One of the rare books that consistently made me laugh all the way. Not as funny as the [book: McSweeney's Joke Book of Joke Books] but still a grin maker.

Do not read this book if you are sharing a couch with your boyfriend who wants to read his own book, because you will have to interupt his reading every 2.4 minutes to read aloud a list or two or all.

We had a 26books blogger meet-up recently and we each brought a book to exchange. I got this one from Ann. It’s an anthology of writing from the humour section of McSweeney’s, the American book, magazine and website publisher. It’s patchy.

There are high points, notably John Hodgman’s Fire, The Next Sharp Stick? and J M Tyree’s On the Implausibility of the Death Star’s Trash Compactor, but too often the jokes can’t sustain even the short pieces devoted to them.

For example, Jim Stallard’s No Justice, No Foul has a very simple premise: for years the American Supreme Court has solved disputes within its number through basketball games. And that’s it. Over twelve pages the descriptions of basketball games - hey, it’s funny because they’re judges, see? - wear thinner and thinner.
Full review: http://www.26books.com/?p=271

Awesome, because I have two pieces in it.

I'm really a-hopin that soon more folks pick this book up besides me--who got it for free--and the author, though as time passes I know damn well this book'll never sell and become forgotten by the few readers it had, when no one will know what the hell Warner is ever talking about unless you're growing up today in America and a little savvy to politics. This fact has led me to lower the rating given a tiny bit, see, all the jokes poking fun at actors/actresses and foolish political commentator millionaires, questions asking about NOW, current gas prices, that sort of thing. He actually acknowledges that upcoming pages may no longer contain truths by the time the book hits stores (i.e., shit dealin with Iowa/New Hampshire; black or female presidents, etcetcetc). I'm really goin on far too long here.

What I'm trying to say is that I laughed reading this book more loudly and obnoxiously than ever before (from a book...actually from anything). So You Want to Be President?: Find Out If You Have the Ego, Bankroll, and Moral Flexibility to Lead the Nation and Take on the World would have been a better piece accompanying an issue of McSweeney's, where Warner is editor for the Internet Tendency, and would have gotten many more readers than being released under his own (I imagine?) Tow Books company.

Half of SYWTBP? is made up of questionaires meant to teach you essential skills to become the next President of the United States of America, like how to give meaningless replies to questions on hot issues (abortion! social security!) that sets you firmly in the middle, making you a doughface like ol' Pierce or Buchanan, or some silly lines ("People should refer to marijuana as 'wacky tobacky'") set to set you up as either a Republican or Democract or the unlikely place of somewhere in between. I still think back and giggle on the beforeandafter pics for how the presidency aged these rugged and handsome men like JFK, the string of possible campaign logos, and those hidden-image puppies.

...

This book comes recommended. Pick it up, but quickly! (Hey, it's pretty cheap for a trade paperback--$10. Did I also mention how nice it looks?)

F.V.: Six-Zero.

[Warner + me 4 evah]

[Holy beans, someone else bought it! On a side note, I'm acknowledging that this is by far my worst review, but I promised John I'd write it, and even though he didn't and doesn't care, it felt necessary as payment for a free book. Maybe some day I'll re-write it, and not have so much trouble expressing my opinion, choosing my words, even figuring out what I really want to say.]

The comedy that makes us laugh the most never has a universal appeal. Nothing makes everyone laugh and it seems the more specific to the audience the humor is, the more effective it is. We laugh hardest at inside jokes, so long as we are in on them. "Created in Darkness" is like a collection of inside jokes. You have to be attuned to the specific wavelength of the authors to really laugh at the humor involved in a transcript entitled "Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer 2002, for 'The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings' DVD (Platinum Series Extended Version." But if you are on that wavelength, you will laugh harder at this and other pieces such as this like nothing else you will read. Not everything will work of course, but none of the pieces are exceptionally weak and the net is cast so wide that if your sense of humor is offbeat in any way, more than likely you will find more than enough here to make giggle.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net)