Books We Have Known

The bookshelves have been sagging under the collective weight of all the Amazon purchases lo these many years, and so we're divesting ourselves of many books of which we have come into possession.


Herewith, is a random list of five of those books, some equally random comments on their contents or quality, and, potentially, what I was thinking when I bought and/or read the book:

1. It Takes a Village Idiot: Former Entertainment Weekly writer buys a house in sticks, only to be made fun of by locals. Hilarity ensues.

2. How to Be A Star at Work: Don't bother even taking this one out of the library, because the upshot is, there's really only one way, and the key is this: Make lots of money for the firm.

3. Confessions of a Window Dresser: The memoir of Simon Doonan, the mastermind of the Barney's shop windows. Got this in the bargain bin a couple of years ago. A few good anecdotes, but not as good as I'd hoped. The book felt kind of slapped together, like a collage of ideas someone had kept in a shoebox.

4. How Now: A new-agey, feel-good tome that I found amidst the stacks -- at our local Anthropologie store, no less. What was I thinking when I bought this book? I have no idea. What was I thinking when I read this book? "I should have bought the coffee-table book on Parisian style instead."

5. Television without Pity: Far more entertaining to make your own snarky comments about TV shows. Reading others making them? Not so much.

I give up. Good night.