What The Needy Yet Thrifty Are Reading

Let’s see what Advice and How-to books the American people are reading, according to The NY TIMES. The Times also includes books the editors don’t know how to categorize. This is the paperback list which means the people buying these books are thrifty as well as needy

#10 – Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of the Rich by Robert T. Kiyosaki – Money lessons gleaned from the financial crisis. Is this the guy who wrote Rich Dad / Poor Dad? I didn’t read that either. These types of books are really boring and yet my book case is loaded with them. I have never completed any. Perhaps that’s explains my current financial and underemployment situation.

#9 - The Biggest Loser Simple Swaps by Multiple People - How to get healthier by substituting better dishes and ingredients. I’m assuming that this book is exploiting the success of the TV show. What’s next a movie directed by Rob Reiner? How about just a little common sense and self restraint? “My son is not fat he’s just big boned”

#8 – Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 by Lisa Lillian – 200 hundred recipes with fewer than 200 calories, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time. Is 800 calories a day healthy? Do these dishes taste like rice crackers? The publisher is St. Martin’s when did this great name in the book world start hanging out with Oprah and Dr. Phil?

#7 - Buy Ketchup In May And Fly At Noon by Mark Di Vincenzo – Lot’s of answers to the question “What’s the best time to? Perhaps this book may be useful but do I really need to spend $13.99 when the internet is free? No.

#6 - The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick with Lawrence Kimbrough – A 40 day challenge for spouses who want to practice unconditional love. Huh? I am assuming that Alex is Stephen’s wife and not his sister or boyfriend and where does Lawrence fit in if this is a book for married couples? Does it take 40 days to practice at unconditional love? What happens if at the end of 40 days your wife decides to put conditions on her love? The opus has been on the chart for 57 weeks, clearly I am missing something here.

#5 – Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman & Kim Barnouin – Vegan diet advice from the world of modeling. Models are writing a book about eating. Next thing we know Sarah Palin will be writing a book about speaking in clear and declarative sentences. I wonder if vodka and cigarettes are vegan.

#4 – The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle – A guide to personal growth and spiritual enlightenment. This new age bible has been on the chart for 80 weeks. A lot of people really like this guy. I admit I have never read any of his pearls of wisdom but I have flipped through them. If you say it enough times, if you really want it to happen, if you will yourself to it your dreams will come true. Well guess what Eck, it does not work that way, and I wish it did but the real world takes a little more effort, politics and bullshit than your goo goo, wish upon a star, Disneyesque type ending. But, then he is a very wealthy guru and I’m not.

#3 – The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman – How to communicate love in a way a spouse will understand. Why does it take a book to know how to speak to the person you have chosen to spend the rest of your life with? I suspect Victoria and Albert, George and Martha, John and Abigail, Christopher and Don or Ronny and Nancy did not need a book to make their relationships survive. They just made it work. Guy and I make it work. But, for 117 weeks people who are too lazy to try have been turning to Mr. Chapman.

#2 – What To Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Markoff & Sharon Mazel – Advise for parents to be. I can’t relate because I will never be in this position and looking around me I don’t think the best advice book has been written. Then again billions of babies are born every week in this world and most of the parents have never had to read a book about it.

#1 – New Moon by Mark Costa Vaz – The illustrated companion to the movie – Lot’s of pictures of shirtless guys, lots of behind the scene scoops to part 2 of this film trilogy. This book will make a great Christmas present for your nephew if you think he’s gay or his 13 year old sister.

Please don’t accept my review as the final word for these books I have not and will not read them.