Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Unhelpful Books (ongoing)

There's a part of me that really, really enjoys criticizing, so as long as I'm compiling a list of books I've enjoyed it's probably appropriate to have a list of books that I didn't enjoy, enough to want to mention it anyway. At least it could generate discussion, no?

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, Gray - I know some people swear by this book but I really did not find it very enlightening. (*pause for snide personal attack directed at blogger and the current quality of his relationships with women*) Certainly the first few chapters are striking in that they very accurately characterize some typical behaviors of men and women. But the reasoning behind them is very generalizing and seems a very blunt instrument with which to assess all of humanity. Also the remaining chapters seem to be very repetitive, as well as contain several lists of characterizations of men and women that seemed to me quite arbitrary.

Another criticism that a friend brought up is that the author is divorced. While I personally would not want to lay too much judgment on such a circumstance, it is an interesting point to bring up considering the book is meant to educate its audience in relational matters. Incidentally, the woman that Gray divorced happens to be Barbara de Angelis, another author whose work I have read and commented on, and actually enjoyed.

1 comment:

  1. It's The Friendly! said...

    Two spiritual books that I found to be not helpful, or even offensive, in one case:

    Wild At Heart I think the author lost me somewhere in the introduction or first chapter when he said something like, "Face it. Boys are made wanting to play with guns and be rough. To deny this would be denying that God created boys this way." Or something to that effect. I tried to continue reading but couldn't get past that sweeping generalization and quit after the first 3 chapters or so.

    The Prayer Of Jabez Our bible talk once read this as a group and I couldn't help but think that the author was inferring way too much about Jabez's life from such a short scripture.

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