Books You've Thrown Away

[Deleted]

Sept 1, 2011 0:39:51 GMT -4 Witchie said:

Something Borrowed. Hated every character in the book.

ME TOO! What a bunch of douchebags. And I am sorry, but what Rachel did was wrong, regardless of how bitchy Darcy was. Plus, it was completely unrealistic.

I stopped reading Pioneer Woman's Black Heels and Tractor Wheels after two chapters because it was just a re-tread of her website. Plus, I got the distinct feeling that she was leaving out a huge majority of the story. It was very flat, and even though I like her, I don't think she is entirely truthful about her life.

[chonies]

Sept 5, 2011 13:31:07 GMT -4 @borokat said:

Sept 1, 2011 0:39:51 GMT -4 Witchie said:

Something Borrowed. Hated every character in the book.

ME TOO! What a bunch of douchebags. And I am sorry, but what Rachel did was wrong, regardless of how bitchy Darcy was. Plus, it was completely unrealistic.

I stopped reading Pioneer Woman's Black Heels and Tractor Wheels after two chapters because it was just a re-tread of her website. Plus, I got the distinct feeling that she was leaving out a huge majority of the story. It was very flat, and even though I like her, I don't think she is entirely truthful about her life.

Oooh, what do you think she's leaving out? I like her blog (in part because it's just a different way of life), but I hadn't intended to read her book.

[MrsCatHead]

<Popcorn munch>

[Deleted]

I feel like giant chunks of her life was being left out. I have heard rumors on Teh Internetz about another dude being in the mix when she was dating Marlboro Man. Also that she actively pursued MM when she found out that he he came from money. And that she has been trying to sell herself as a brand since she started the blog. I think that more than anything, it is obvious that she is not a simple country farm wife. This has been her career for awhile.

That being said, her haterz are scary. I read a blog that was created solely to hate PW and it actually frightened me. If I were Ree Drummond I would be keeping an eye out for that crazy bitch.

I am not a cook and I don't really get into photography, but I love her basset hound entries. I feel silly for writing this, but I think she commented on my blog once. I blog about my basset hound quite a bit and I sent her an email back when I started my blog that linked to one of my favorite basset posts. Right after that, I had an anonymous comment on the entry, and this was at a time when my blog was so new that I was not getting a lot of comments, anonymous or otherwise. If it was her, I wonder why she did not comment as herself?

[chonies]

Huh...interesting about the anonymous comment. That sounds kind of disingenuous. Why would someone do that?

I remember reading the story on her blog of her courtship with Marlboro Man maybe three or four years ago, and she definitely mentioned some other guy that she was pretty serious about. I don't think they were engaged, although they might have been. In the web version, it just seemed to go ON and ON about did she like him? and would they meet again? and how would she live without sushi??? and she got lost driving to his house? and what would she tell the other guy? and what would she tell MM about the other guy?? and all sorts of things, so maybe it just got a heavy-handed editor or something. The thing about the other guy was not really something I'd advertise, but it happens--although I agree that it seems like something that might need to get told if you're talking about that part of your life anyway. I also remember reading the story and getting the impression she was already preparing it for a manuscript.

Interesting analysis, borokat. Some of the other blog posts seemed real enough--using cheapish ingredients because that's what's available, for one--but I hadn't looked at her blog in quite a while and had actually forgotten she existed until someone gave me her cookbook. I guess I thought she was kind of fun and campy and it seems like that's not quite right.

[narm]

I recycled Babywise and The Secret.

[Smilla]

and The Secret.

Good call. I loathe and despise The Secret on every level. And I'm a crazy New Ager who actually does believe it's possible to manifest stuff. Just not the way the idiots (read: greedy, manipulative jerks) who wrote that shite want people to believe it is.

[narm]

I know! I definitely skew somewhat new agey myself, but dear God, it was awful. Manipulative, creepy and trying too hard. I do believe a lot in the power of the mind, but this bugged. It was a gift, and I felt bad, but no way. I hate to throw away books so I felt better recycling.

[chonies]

Wow, digging this thread up. And my opinion on The Pioneer Woman has totally changed--I read more about her somewhere else and it tipped the scales.

But the real reason I'm posting? I didn't think it was worth it to create a whole thread on journalism, so I'm using this one. There's a writer for Runner's World Monthly whose writing just drives me to the edge of screaming madness, and I need to vent. Behold Steve Friedman. He writes features, and while I usually love his topics, I just deflate when I see his byline.

Examples:

From an article about Bret Dunlap:

You know what people think. They see jeans too short and winter coat too shiny, too grimy, and think, homeless. They watch a credit card emerge from those jeans and think, grifter. They behold a frozen grin, hear a string of strangled, tortured pauses, and think, slow. Stupid.

That's fine by you. It used to be fine, in any case. It was fine before the day two years ago, when your brother Eric asked you to run a 5-K race. He was running a 10-K, and he thought it would be nice to have company. You refused—you didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. You didn't want to deal with people looking at you, with them thinking things

From an article about an ultra marathoner nicknamed the Barf Queen:

You never liked your little brother's ex-wife and she knows it. You didn't like her when they dated, and you didn't like her when they married, and you didn't like her when they split up. You think she's a bad influence, a drifter. You always worried about your little brother because even when he was a kid he always seemed dreamy and unsure of himself—the opposite of you—and when he came back from Vietnam he was so sad, and then he chose the absolute wrong person for a bride. She knows how you blame her, what you think about her. Why wouldn't she?

From an article about Zola Budd

Zola's coach got her running more and Jenny became a nurse and wasn't around as much. She worked the night shift and she would come home just as the family was having breakfast, and she would have a piece of cake or pie–Jenny always had a sweet tooth–and then she would go to sleep as Zola went off to school. When Zola needed to talk to someone, though, Jenny was always there.

There are others, but generally, I find his writing self-congratulatory and irritating. Writing more than one article in the second person voice? Pretentious and kind of weird. I will say this--he seems like an amazing interviewer because he has some great, evocative details, but his actual writing seems more like an ordeal.

It's annoying and I needed to get that out of my system. Thank you.

[famvir]

chonies, you are being too kind. Page NINE of the Bret Dunlap article and he is still at it.

Your mother drinks coffee and talks about the jalapeños she pickles.

Your mother is a hard woman who has no time for religion but who is sure we should all seek God, to try to understand what our gift is, to be useful.

You walk straighter now and you feel stronger, and you like how you can check out pretty women in shorts and no one seems to mind.

It is just soooo tiring.