The Tao Of Martha: Like The Kardashians.
Prepare yourselves, friendly readers... I'm about to disappoint many of you.
I know many of you love, love, love Jen Lancaster. Her blog is funny. Her humor is sharp and quick. And it makes for excellent blog posts to read a few times a month.
Blogging is a style of writing that suits her. But in my opinion, it's the only one.
I recently decided to pick up her newest book, The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING, or Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog.
I was walking through Barnes and Noble in June, saw it featured on one of the tables, and said, "Sure. I'll give this a shot. I'm sure she's due by now."
"Due?" Yes.
I read Bitter Is The New Black about seven years ago. I was not a fan of the style. The stories themselves would make for hilarious blog post anecdotes. Which is why I liked her blog. But putting them into a book, bound together for reading? Well, Bitter wasn't bad. I just didn't find it interesting enough of a read for me to feel the need to pick up any of her other books about her adventures after that.
Reading it, I found it dull.
"You're insane," one friend told me after I confessed to finding JL's books boring. "She is da bomb! Funny as shit. You're just jealous."
Absolutely! And that's the thing... To some degree, I am Jen Lancaster. Only minus the pets and the Republican Party membership. But the antics with her husband... The humor... The simple adventures... THAT IS INDEED MY LIFE! Sure, I now tend to microblog more then I write here in this space. But I share my stories in other places; mostly Facebook and Twitter. And the fact that Jen Lancaster has made an opportunity out of a mundane everyday life and gotten people to pay for her stories... Shit... You bet I am jealous!
But that's not why I find her books boring.
No. I just think that when I pick up an actual book to read, I want to get pulled in and lost in it. Reading her posts on her blog on my iPad: PERFECT and ENTERTAINING way to absorb the content she is sharing. In a book? No.
I am tempted to pick up the novels that she published last year, just to see if her fiction writing pulls me in more than her self-documentary style... But I am not ready to commit to those purchases yet. Especially after reading The Tao of Martha. It was a cute idea... But it felt a little "Kardashian-esque."
You know how on reality shows they force things into the story line to see how things will turn out - and you (the viewer) can tell it's forced and doesn't feel genuine? That's how I felt read "The Tao." It felt like the few times I watched The Kardashians. Painful. And not genuine. And just like with most reality TV, I have to turn it off before I even get to the end.
I know many of you love, love, love Jen Lancaster. Her blog is funny. Her humor is sharp and quick. And it makes for excellent blog posts to read a few times a month.
Blogging is a style of writing that suits her. But in my opinion, it's the only one.
I recently decided to pick up her newest book, The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING, or Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog.
I was walking through Barnes and Noble in June, saw it featured on one of the tables, and said, "Sure. I'll give this a shot. I'm sure she's due by now."
"Due?" Yes.
I read Bitter Is The New Black about seven years ago. I was not a fan of the style. The stories themselves would make for hilarious blog post anecdotes. Which is why I liked her blog. But putting them into a book, bound together for reading? Well, Bitter wasn't bad. I just didn't find it interesting enough of a read for me to feel the need to pick up any of her other books about her adventures after that.
Reading it, I found it dull.
"You're insane," one friend told me after I confessed to finding JL's books boring. "She is da bomb! Funny as shit. You're just jealous."
Absolutely! And that's the thing... To some degree, I am Jen Lancaster. Only minus the pets and the Republican Party membership. But the antics with her husband... The humor... The simple adventures... THAT IS INDEED MY LIFE! Sure, I now tend to microblog more then I write here in this space. But I share my stories in other places; mostly Facebook and Twitter. And the fact that Jen Lancaster has made an opportunity out of a mundane everyday life and gotten people to pay for her stories... Shit... You bet I am jealous!
But that's not why I find her books boring.
No. I just think that when I pick up an actual book to read, I want to get pulled in and lost in it. Reading her posts on her blog on my iPad: PERFECT and ENTERTAINING way to absorb the content she is sharing. In a book? No.
I am tempted to pick up the novels that she published last year, just to see if her fiction writing pulls me in more than her self-documentary style... But I am not ready to commit to those purchases yet. Especially after reading The Tao of Martha. It was a cute idea... But it felt a little "Kardashian-esque."
You know how on reality shows they force things into the story line to see how things will turn out - and you (the viewer) can tell it's forced and doesn't feel genuine? That's how I felt read "The Tao." It felt like the few times I watched The Kardashians. Painful. And not genuine. And just like with most reality TV, I have to turn it off before I even get to the end.
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