Stupid People.... Well, People I Think Are Stupid.

I'm kind of pissed off about something.

So, I'm listening to this book right now... I'll get to that part later because I really want to write about the book and how it makes me feel.  But, what's got me annoyed is Amazon.com reviews.

So, I had a hard time with the beginning of the book because it started a little slow and I was tempted to just quit it, but something made me keep going and I'm glad that I did.  But about half way through it I started thinking about how I was going to review it, what I wanted to say, etc.  That got me thinking about what other people might be saying and I thought, "I bet there are a lot of negative reviews" just because of the fact that it's not a very fast paced book and it's a memoir, so the subject matter is personal to the author and all about the author.  I couldn't wait until I was done and instead went and checked out the reviews and I was right... a LOT of negatives.  I have no problem with people not liking the same things that I like. But what irritates me is the fact that people write negative reviews about something because they don't even understand WHAT they were reading in the first place.  They can write a negative review, but write it because the writing is bad or you found the story boring or slow, not because you didn't bother to read the dust jacket to find out what you were going to read.

What I mean is that if you pick up a book, in this case a MEMOIR because you liked the NOVEL that the author wrote and then feel ripped off because it's not a novel and the author has the audacity to write about themselves... well, what the hell is wrong with you?  You're just stupid.  YOU don't have the right to write a negative review because someone chose to write a different type of book then you wanted to read and YOU read it anyway!   Literally, one person said, "I was consumed by these details at Ann's age, too, but certainly don't want to read about anyone else's decisions."  THEN WHY ARE YOU READING A MEMOIR?

Let's look at what a memoir is:  "Memoir (from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory), is a non-fiction genre. More specifically, it is a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events, both public or private that took place in the author's life."

Knowing this is the definition of memoir, why would you choose to read one and then turn around and write a review complaining about the author's "self-absorption".  Seriously?  Or, how "self-indulgent" the authors are.  Um, well, the book is a non-fiction account of the authors' thoughts, feelings, memories from their perspectives on what they considered was a difficult time in their lives.  THAT is the premise of the memoir which is clearly stated on the description.  One reviewer even complained that it wasn't much of a travelogue.  Really?  Did you come up with that all on your own?  At no point, does anyone say this book was a travelogue.  What is nice about it is that we do get to experience some wonderful worldwide sights when they write about their experiences while traveling in Greece and France.  But that is a bonus and a nice background to the story, not the purpose of the book.

What really makes me feel angry are the people who hate the book because how dare these two women experience depression or fear or unhappiness in their lives while they get to travel to foreign countries and don't have money problems while other people are suffering home foreclosures and tsunamis.  Really?  So, because someone else has something negative happen to them it negates someone else's feelings?   If you really feel this way, you're an ass  It's okay to not like the book.  It's okay to not like the writing.  It's okay to feel like it's overly depressing or to accept you don't enjoy reading about other people's feelings of depression or inadequacy.  But to attack someone for not being poor or dead it pretty awful.  

Anyway, I think we've created a world where people's opinions of everything matter too much.  Yes, I realize that I am a constant reviewer and opinionator myself, so I guess I'm a hypocrite, but I read a comment by someone on Yelp once that said, maybe if everyone included a blurb as to why they feel they are qualified to review this "fill in the blank", we might get better reviews or at least ignore the ones by people without qualification.

That all said, the book I'm discussing is called Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor.  It is touching me in strange ways and I will review it when I'm done and I'll talk about it here.  Very soon.

That is all.  /Rant