Books

A book that I hate is easier to note than one I love, because I love most books.

However, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is one of the worst books I have ever read. It was so bad I wanted to burn it. It was so bad that I did not give it to the library or loan it to anyone; I threw it in a dumpster.

This so-called self-help book touts the "law of attraction" and how your own thoughts can change the world. It goes so far as to say that airplanes crash because all of the people on board that day want the airplane to crash. Or that children who are abused by their parents bring it on themselves. Talk about victim blaming. This one tops the list of anything I have ever read, completely disallowing for random acts of violence or random acts of anything, for that matter. If you're poor, it's because you want to be. If you're in a high school and you're shot, it's because you want to be. If you have pain it's because you want pain.

That a lot of people believe this only flies in the face of logic, as this fake science has absolutely nothing to back it up. I grant you that people can think themselves happy. They can, maybe, sit around and come up with some great invention and make themselves rich. But a child doesn't die in a car crash because he or she was thinking, "Gee, how nice it would be to die in a car crash right now." I mean come on. Life is full of circumstantial crap that none of us have any control over. I can only control my own thoughts and reactions, and if the book had stopped there, fine. But this crazy author went on to say that she thought her own eyesight back to health. Really? We're all sick because we want to be?

This book was (and is) nothing but a scam perpetrated on what has become an increasingly stupid and gullible public. You can read my initial review of it here. This is how I started my review: "If I were to memorize parts of this book, then go see a competent doctor or therapist and recite those parts, I am pretty sure I would walk away with a DSM IV diagnosis. Something along the lines of "narcissism with magical thinking." And major ego problems."

A book that I like is a harder pick for me, because I like many books, many different genres, and many different authors.

That said, I think I will list If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, as one of my favorites. I haven't read it in a while but it is one of the few books I reread. It is not a book about how to write, but about how to think and see the world with open eyes and without prejudice and judgment. It's about bringing out the artist in you, and about living a lifestyle that acknowledges the abilities of your brain.

I normally do not write in books, but my old copy of this book has many highlighted passages. Like this line: "the faster you run and accomplish a lot of useless things, the more you are dead."

This book was written in 1938. That it remains relevant today says as much about it as any words I might otherwise express.

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Linking up with the April challenge from Kwizgiver. April 8 done!