The Secret. If you wish hard enough for it, an elephant will appear in your living room, eventually.
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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Anything Self-Help. They're usually just a vehicle to sell more shit.
"If you're looking for self-help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? Also, if you're reading it in a book, folks, it ain't self-help. It's help."
St. George Carlin
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Catcher in the Rye
My exact thought as well. It was mandatory in HS, and i just never got the hype. Holden Caufield is a whiny phony.
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Atlas Shrugged or Dianetics.
--//--
Bun
Air
Bun
I actually liked The Fountainhead. Rugged, taciturn individualist architect slowly overcomes all the scheming poseurs. It appealed to the younger me anyway. I didn't pick up on any deeper message at the time and this was pre-internet so I didn't have a clue who Ayn Rand was.
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Songs of the Gorilla Nation. It's supposed to be a book about the autism of the author, but it's just a weird love letter to the entire Gorilla population, described as perfect creatures every human should aspire to be, it's pretty much like that simpson shimpanzee parody episode, except more sad.
There is very little content about autism, but you can tell there is a lot of resentment towards neurotipicals (who she calls neuromutilated) and a lot of toxic autism pride. I believe the author has a lot of unresolved trauma that she coped with cultivating resentment and obsessing over gorillas.
Didn't learn much about autism nor gorillas, a pretty lame book overall.
The JD Vance hillbilly elegy thing. Please don’t hate me, I read this in 2017/18. It was a Christmas present and in my country was hyped at the time as the book you HAVE to read to understand why Americans from the flyover states like Trump and why they would vote for him.
I read the book. Not very interesting. Still didn’t understand why…
The fact that it was made into a movie as well…
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Ready player one.
Do you like lists of pop culture references? Because that's all it is.
Hey now, there's also two whole pages about the main characters'masturbatory habits!
I now have negative desire to read this.
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The Sphere. I’ve never hated the ending to a book more.
You disliked the ending to The Sphere more than The Andromeda Strain?
I haven’t read the Andromeda Strain…I guess I shouldn’t?
I actually enjoyed 90% of Sphere, but then the ending just…killed it. Like, it comes off as if he just got sick of writing the story despite not having a way to end it.
Actually I really liked The Andromeda Strain including its ending, but it had a similar let down feeling. I think it’s worth the read. See how we thought about pandemics in the 90s before we had a major outbreak in the western world (excluding HIV)
Crichton is best when he’s writing hard science fiction like Andromeda or Jurassic Park. Sphere is too science fantasy for him and he struggles with how to make it work.
I’m not a book person, but I think Andromeda Strain is an interesting book. I like how it displays the (from today’s point of view) horribly outdated technology as advanced high-tech.
One of the cases of a mildly science fiction book, that got overtaken by reality.
I think the best part of the book was the hubris of the government. They threw technology at a problem that was untested and unplanned.
if we spend enough money, surely we can solve the problem
Such a late 80s and 90s sentiment
scientific hubris is the underlying theme of almost all of Crichton's sci-fi books.
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Beer, A History of Brewing in Chicago by Bob Skilnik
In the first chapter, maybe even the preface, the author begins to complain that Chicago never recovered from the Great Fire and never will.
This was during the craft beer explosion of the twenty-teens, mind, and I myself worked at a Chicago brewery at the time.
I decided then and there that the book was hopelessly out of date and not worth reading.
The subtle art of not giving a fuck
Never split the difference
Rich dad poor dad
7 habits
These books exist just to sell seminars.
I would like to add Atomic Habits to this. Though the subtle art of not giving a fuck was helpful to angsty early 20s me.
Read rich dad poor dad. Nothing but leveraging yourself into oblivion and doing your best to make the most sketchy writeoffs or deductions you can. Heck, the author is allegedly a billion in debt and has filed for bankruptcy at least once. Not exactly a resounding example of his own financial advice.
The way the book was explained to me, if your dad is a working stiff he'll just tell you to work hard at whatever high paying job you can get. If your dad is a high finance type of guy, he'll show you that the real money is in managing money.
Good concept, and true I guess. The book is useless though!
Rich dad poor dad
7 habits
My former therapist wanted me to read those. This was in 2023
Your former-therapist needs a therapist.
😬
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The Art of the Deal