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Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded (2008)

by John Scalzi(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1596062118 (ISBN13: 9781596062115)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Subterranean

review 1: About the only negative I would have for this book, like many collections of short essays/blog posts, is that it is likely better to be read in a piecemeal, "I have five spare minutes", fashion than straight on through. This might be especially true for this book which is not arranged with any particular organizing theme. As a reflection of the originating blog, that makes sense but it does lend a jarring senstation to some of the transitions between chapters. Some of the material is dated as well, though I did not find that a problem. I guess others would prefer to forget the Bush years (which I fully understand) but the writing still holds up. All that being said, Scalzi is a fine writer with a distinct voice and a wicked sense of humour who comes across as a slightly mo... morere gentle Dan Savage though in full rant mode he comes pretty close. Read it.
review 2: I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of blogs. Scalzi has put together a fascinating time capsule of the country from 1998 to 2008. I really appreciated that the blogs aren't in numerical order. A blog from 2008 could be followed by one from 1999. It heightened the differences in the US. What a difference a decade can make. I had forgotten a lot of the important issues of the time. It was also fun to see Scalzi's speculation on how things would turn out when I already knew the outcome. Kind of like reading the end of the book first. Besides a political, social, and economic portrait of the times, Scalzi offers some good insight into writing. One of my favorite blogs was on his being fired by AOL and how that turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him career-wise. And in addition to the rib-splitting humor that he is a master at, there were plenty of poignant moments and thought provoking insights about people, society, and the important things in life. After reading this collection, Scalzi has made me a fan of his blog. I intend to drop in regularly to see what he's talking about now. less

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