I Just Can’t Bring Myself To Be “Furiously Happy”

I’ve always been a person that enjoys reading. I usually don’t have time for it though, or maybe it’s that I just don’t make the time. Either way, I haven’t done a lot of reading lately for one of those reasons. However, I decided recently that I am going to make time to read, because it’s something I really enjoy doing.

My favorite types of books to read are non-fiction and autobiographies/memoirs. I did some research online for books that received good reviews and then went to the bookstore to pick a few up. I’m also a person that does not enjoy reading books on tablets or laptops, I like to hold the book and physically turn the pages. So one of the books that was on the New York Times Best Seller list was by Jenny Lawson, called ‘Furiously Happy’. It got great reviews online, and the description on the front cover of the book said it was a “horrible book about funny things”. I thought to myself, I like making horrible situations less horrible with laughter, so I think I might enjoy this book! It also had a cute little smiling raccoon on the front, and since I love animals, that was another reason I thought I’d like this book.

I was very wrong. It turns out, the smiling raccoon was actually a taxidermy raccoon because the author has some weird obsession with taxidermy. I thought that was very strange, but accepted it and continued reading. I could only read a few pages at a time, because the author’s random ramblings just put me in a tailspin. I couldn’t keep track of the nonsense that was spewed onto the pages. It was almost as if she wrote a chapter on every single random thought that popped into her head at any given time, and I couldn’t (nor did I want to) keep up.

This book is also about coping with anxiety and depression, and knowing people who suffer from both, I was interested in what she had to say about it. She took a swing but missed hard on this one. I thought it could be an opportunity for her to be inspiring, poignant, empathetic, and she completely dropped the ball. She was none of those things, in fact, her ramblings about mental illness came across as insulting to anyone who suffers with it.

I really don’t like not finishing books. I feel guilty not finishing books, but I just cannot waste one more minute of my life on this nonsense. I got to page 108 and I can’t believe I even made it that far. I have no idea how this book got published.

So, onto the next one I go. The next book on my list is called ‘When Breath Becomes Air’ by Paul Kalanithi. I really hope this one is a much better choice than my last pick!

By the way, what do you do with your books after you read them? Leave them on your bookshelf, donate them? I am not sure what to do with this one, and I’d be lying if I said I wanted to keep it!

Speak Your Mind

*



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy