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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Always heartbreaking. The first real chapter and the last couple pages always leave me speechless.
I liked this book for its humorous and, at the same time, devastatingly sad look at my generation. I love the juxtaposition of passages where Eggers seems hilariously self-absorbed and arrogant (see the descriptions of his and his brother's frisbee playing) and panicked and self-loathing (see his dealing with his mother's ashes).
I love the voice of Toph. How he morphs from an 8-year-old kid to Dave berating himself. "You're breaking character again."
The best thing about my reading experience, though, was the fact that I happened to have three issues of Might magazine lying around my house. Funny that I hadn't read this book until now, but I had those issues of Might for years. It was great being able to open up the magazines and look at what Eggers described in the book.
I love the voice of Toph. How he morphs from an 8-year-old kid to Dave berating himself. "You're breaking character again."
The best thing about my reading experience, though, was the fact that I happened to have three issues of Might magazine lying around my house. Funny that I hadn't read this book until now, but I had those issues of Might for years. It was great being able to open up the magazines and look at what Eggers described in the book.
Just didn’t like it at all. The “Rules” and Preface in the beginning were more enjoyable than any of the actual book. There was no consistency other than it being all over the place, but that isn’t even my main complaint. This book comes off as extremely stilted. I can see Eggers being pedantic or even narcissistic in real life based off his writing in AHWOSG. It was like reading the journal of a manic, babbling on, totally convinced they’re being profound. How can he say nothing at all while giving his best attempt to be (casually, of course) witty and ironic? After the tragic introduction of him losing his parents, I expected to FEEL more reading the rest, but found myself feeling nothing. Sure, what happened to him was heavy — so why didn’t I feel any emotion? It never clicked; why so many people love this book. I never got connected to the story. Not with the people, not the events, not the idea behind it all. Not even the writing style at a minimum. I don’t see the cleverness or talent Eggers clearly is sure he possesses. The whole experience was me waiting (while it went frustratingly on and on and on trying so hard to be artistically intellectual) for it to get better, then it coming to a weird end. By weird I mean a bunch of fractured thoughts haphazardly shoved together for “effect.” Most of which consisting of the continued ego boost he has given himself throughout the whole book disguised as compliments and adoration for his little brother. After all, how could Toph have ever turned out so glorious if it weren’t for Dave’s influence? *eye roll*
Meh. I feel like I'm missing something as it got great reviews, but I thought it was just okay.
This book was very self-conscious, and really meta, which made it kind of weird to read. Two things predisposed me to really like this book:
1) Dave Eggers was one of the co-founders of the 826 Valencia project, which is the driving force behind the SUPERHERO SUPPLY STORE, which is one of my favorite places on EARTH.
2) Introduction features a quote from his younger brother that says "OOOoo look at me, I'm Dave I'm soooooo important I'm writing a book" only, you know, in words that honestly made me laugh out loud.
Then there was a lot of angst. And stylistic writing.
1) Dave Eggers was one of the co-founders of the 826 Valencia project, which is the driving force behind the SUPERHERO SUPPLY STORE, which is one of my favorite places on EARTH.
2) Introduction features a quote from his younger brother that says "OOOoo look at me, I'm Dave I'm soooooo important I'm writing a book" only, you know, in words that honestly made me laugh out loud.
Then there was a lot of angst. And stylistic writing.
I first read [book:You Shall Know Our Velocity!|4954] and loved the stream of conscious style of writing. It took me a long time to get around to reading this one, and I have no idea why it took me so long, it was fantastic.
Such a cocky title really entertains me, and the book actually does it justice.
Such a cocky title really entertains me, and the book actually does it justice.
I may be the only person in America who wasn't doing backfilps over this book. I just couldn't connect with it.
As the title suggests, this book was narcissistic to its core. Using an interview to reflect on “is this really part of an interview or is this a commentary about the book/a cheap, easy way to add in back story about the characters” was cheeky but having Eggers refer to the book/himself/his writing process within these pages so many times afterwards was annoying and frustrating to read. AHWOSG also contained a cast of generally undeveloped, mostly unrelatable characters, the main one being Eggers himself.
