...like the morning I just spent reading this book. My first instinct was not to read it, I'm just not interested in these kinds of things. Books about personalities, rockstars, actors etc., just leaves me bored. It wasn't really all that bad, I did learn one or two new things, and I laughed a few times. It was just one morning's effort.
The issue for me however, is confusion. I am puzzled about why people now are writing such books about themselves when, to my point of view, I don't think they've done that much (be on the lookout for Justin Bieber's book coming soon...not!). It has always been an assumption of mine that when you write an autobiography you have already lived a long and eventful life and have much wisdom to share. The exception being I suppose that one really special noteworthy thing has already happened to you and there is so much material to write about this event that it couldn't possibly wait for years from now when you are old and grey. Apparently not. These days anyone with a bit of renown can churn out a book about themselves and it doesn't really have to make much sense...or have a point.
When I read a book I expect to get somewhere at the conclusion, even if it is a series or a trilogy...whatever. When it is a one-off non-fiction deal, shouldn't it make sense? Where do you want to go? What are you trying to say?
This is a genre I have not really looked at before, because I have not really been all that interested in non-fiction, and it has been something I have wanted to change. So with the aim of reading LibraryThing's Hot This Month list, and trying to improve myself by reading something possibly educational, I thought I would give Bossypants a whirl (at #10 on the list). I don't know much about Tina Fey (being too tired to stay up and watch Saturday Night Live and I have never watched 30 Rock. So it was all new information to me.
She's funny and smart, a person who works hard and does a good job. She's had some success in her career, and has a nice little family. At the end there we all know how ambivalent she is about her job and her family, and she really can't make up her mind about having another baby.
My question is why does it have to be in a book? Isn't it something more appropriate for say a journal, or even a blog? Those one off entries you can make about something that concerns you at the moment, but have no need to be decided on or to be concluded in any way? There is just this very unfinished feeling about the book, which annoys me. And inspires me to rant a little about how these days the world is just being flooded with every concieveable media and it all seems to be about quantity, not quality.
Ok I promise to stop being grumpy now. And I promise to have a look at her next book when/if she writes one twenty nears from now (stuffed with experience and wisdom I fervently hope!)
Also, I will not be reading #4 on the Whats Hot list... Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Just reading the contents make my eyes glaze over and my stomach clench at how many pages are in there... over 700! While I know it meets my criteria for what I think should make up an autobiography I just can't read that many pages about computers and people who make them So I will go with my instincts on that one and give it a miss.
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