What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self
Edited by Ellyn Spragins
This book is a cute little volume that I spotted one day outside of the Dawn Treader. It looked like it might hold some interest for me in my current quest of self-improvement, and I decided to pick it up. I'm not exactly disappointed that I did, but I'm definitely glad that I bought the book used and not new. The premise is intriguing enough: what would you say in a letter to your younger self, given the chance? The women writing in this book represent a cross-section of successful high society, from singers to newscasters to CEOs, reminding us all that even the best among us stumble. I find this top-down approach a tad condescending, but the book has bigger issues than that.
The problem with the letters in this book is that they are often too specific to a certain writer's situation to be useful to the populace at large. By the end of the book, the themes become repetitive, though through no fault of the writers themselves. The prose that introduces each letter also becomes tired and trite. Instead of generally acquainting the reader with the writer, the preludes descend into lists of accomplishments and oversimplifications that are really unnecessary. The letters themselves are usually fairly short, and while some have nice bits here and there, they are too introspective to really resonate to an audience at large. I believe that a project like this could be useful if done correctly, but this particular attempt settles for cliche and isn't particularly useful for the discerning reader.
Grade: B-
Edited by Ellyn Spragins
This book is a cute little volume that I spotted one day outside of the Dawn Treader. It looked like it might hold some interest for me in my current quest of self-improvement, and I decided to pick it up. I'm not exactly disappointed that I did, but I'm definitely glad that I bought the book used and not new. The premise is intriguing enough: what would you say in a letter to your younger self, given the chance? The women writing in this book represent a cross-section of successful high society, from singers to newscasters to CEOs, reminding us all that even the best among us stumble. I find this top-down approach a tad condescending, but the book has bigger issues than that.
The problem with the letters in this book is that they are often too specific to a certain writer's situation to be useful to the populace at large. By the end of the book, the themes become repetitive, though through no fault of the writers themselves. The prose that introduces each letter also becomes tired and trite. Instead of generally acquainting the reader with the writer, the preludes descend into lists of accomplishments and oversimplifications that are really unnecessary. The letters themselves are usually fairly short, and while some have nice bits here and there, they are too introspective to really resonate to an audience at large. I believe that a project like this could be useful if done correctly, but this particular attempt settles for cliche and isn't particularly useful for the discerning reader.
Grade: B-
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