Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life - Amy Krouse Rosenthal

[goodreads]

Title: Encyclopedia of an ordinary Life
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Genre: Non-fiction, memoir
Rating: 7/10
# pages: 220
Date read: December, 2008

Summary: "I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story." Amy Krouse Rosenthal, one-time Might magazine columnist and self-confessed hater of the segue has written a snappy, random, remarkable memoir--the first of its kind to give readers an honest flaws-n-all perspective of what it's like to be...ordinary.

Review: I think this is one of those books that people are either instantly charmed by or don't get at all. And yes, I do appreciate the irony of thinking this way, and then turning around and giving it an average rating. I was charmed by it. It arrived in the mail at 10am this morning. It's currently 1:50pm and I just turned the last page. I was actually in the middle of another book, and just wanted to flip through it to get an idea of what it was like, but ended up being so fascinated by the writing style that I finished the entire thing.

It's a book that'll have you constantly laughing and saying "Yes! Exactly!" because Amy manages to put some of life's quirky yet common experiences into words. And I think that that's its charm. The reader feels like he or she could have written it themselves.

That said, I don't think it's a book I'm likely to reread, and that's the reason for the mediocre rating. I enjoyed it, I eagerly read it through from A-Z... but it's not a book destined to be a rereadable favourite

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Comments

[krikketgirl.livejournal.com]

I liked this book, too, as far as I remember...but you're right, not something that I wanted to necessarily reread.