Just got the galley of this from Steve's publisher on Friday and started reading it last night. The second piece in the book, "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt," a piece about Kurt Vonnegut, is absolutely five stars. It moves me and reminds me of why I started to write, the man who was my greatest influence, and the ways in which I've deliberately distanced myself from him, just as Steve has. Like Steve, I'm embarrassed and ashamed at that distancing. And I now find myself more inpsired...

Really enjoyable read, I personally love Steve Almond's voice, reading his work feels like a conversation

What you want to know is this: (NTYA) is at times laugh-out-loud funny, at times hee-haw funny, at times poignant, at times trenchant and humane--but always compulsively readable. If you like David Foster Wallace's essays for their humor, insight and high-caliber prose then you will LOVE (NTYA). Is (NTYA) worth your money? Absolutely. You'll spend more money on two movie tickets (forget the popcorn and coke) and have way less fun. So do it already: hustle your clicker over to the order button an...

The opening salvo of Steve Almond's collection of essays, "(Not that You Asked)" was a shocker. It's title: "Dear Oprah."Almond opens with a "pre-emptive" letter to Winfrey, rejecting her "offer" to make this volume one of her book club selections. It's laced with profanity, insult and the accusation that her commercializing of literature doesn't inspire new readers, it actually cheapens the work, and damages the integrity of the medium. A series of humorous "apology" letters follow, attempting

I don't quite know how to even rate this book.Pros: Almond can be funny. Really funny. He can be introspective, insightful, honest. His Vonnegut chapter almost brought me to tears. Talking about his baby daughter had me actually laughing out loud. Parts of this were wonderful.Cons: Not to sound like the lit blogger he disliked (God help me), but holy shit, man, please talk about your dick less. Please. I beg you. You don't have to never mention it. You don't have to pretend it doesn't exist. But...

I couldn’t get through it. Boring.

The Vonnegut essay was awesome. The others for me were hit or miss (miss me with those sports ones). An unusual perspective and humorous take.

Books don't often make me laugh, but this one got me a couple of times. Rolling in candy? The Vonnegut essay was really good.

Vaguely amusing waste of time. The type of thing 812 other well-spoken, accident-prone, socially awkward white dudes are cranking out. I'm trying to say something nice about at least one of the chapters, but I'm honestly having a hard time remembering what any of them were about. I hear positive things about this guy, so I suspect I should have started with either the metal or the candy book, and maybe I will and maybe I won't. Based on what I've read thus far, I'm certainly not going to make a

I expected to love this book. If the long rant about baseball had not been included I probably would have, but it took everything I had not to skip that part and put a serious damper on my enthusiasm for the book.

Woody Allen, David Sedaris, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Ira Glass, at least half of the usual contributors to This American Life, and probably half of NPR too. Oh, and yes, Steve Almond.They are funny. They are eloquent. They are insightful. They know a little bit about everything and know how to make us laugh while we nod our heads and say, yes, exactly, that's what I've been wanting to, trying to say. They are liberal, all of them. Their sense of comedic timing is orchest...

I wasn't familiar with Steve Almond before reading this collection of essays. I am much more familiar with him now. Not that I asked.Not That You Asked is that kind of essay collection that tends to get attention these days; a personal memoir that is equally narcissistic and self-deprecating, humorous yet poignant, and involves more discussion about the author's sex life than was necessary. None of these are negative critiques, especially the narcissistic and self-deprecating part, which if we'r...

I have never liked Steve Almond, though Candyfreak is one of my favorite books, and we've only spoken once (at a Candyfreak reading where he chucked a Twin Bing bar to any audience members who asked a question. I raised my hand, asked one, and he tossed it to me like the seal I was!). I've seen him at readings (he DJ'd at Cover to Cover, an event where authors read works by other authors, and he played all songs covered by not-the-original band.) He was also at Tin House the year I went, and whi...

This book consists of your standard same-ol' same-ol' narcissistic navel-gazing that you can find in any of a number of novels and bad Woody Allen movies. The frustrating thing is that Almond tries hard to put his own spin on his narcissisms and obsessions to really establish himself, but he spends too much time being self-mocking to really get to any kind of a point. There's a place for the self-referential author, such as in Ann Lamott's excellent Bird by Bird, but Almond can't quite find it.A...

10 Ways I Killed My Daughter Within Her First 72 Hour Of LifeI rarely even chuckle aloud while reading, and almost never cry at the written word, but while lying in bed, 11:30 Saturday night, alone (which my husband—who was away—will be happy to know,) I smiled, laughed, and then almost cried, as I read this Steve Almond essay from his book titled (Not That You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions. My family tends toward a bent sense of humor. From an early age, my sister, Jill, and I coped w...

The title is your first clue that these essays are not serious or literary or, for the most part, attempts at understanding anything. (Not to get all hung up on Montaigne, but that’s what essays, by definition, are: attempts at understanding.) Almond, author of the 2004 short story collection Candyfreak, makes noises about the “little thrush of beauty” that “unfurls” when a writer really nails it. He confesses to “an embarrassing yearning for beauty” and scolds his readers for “wolfing down burg...

Steve Almond's Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions (Not That You Asked) is a collection of essays tied together only by Almond's admitted fascination with himself. I remember having certain problems with Candyfreak, another of Almond's books, but I think they were mostly in the area of "He doesn't like lime-flavored Life Savers? BUT THEY'RE AWESOME! WHAT A DOUCHE!" This time there were things I didn't like, but they were more in the area of "Is he STILL talking about baseball? Is he going to give a

Almond's writing is witty and hilarious. The letters to Oprah made me cry. His thoughts on parenting would, I'm sure, be echoed by any new dad. In general, I find him a little too brash in writing about his opinions, but I suppose that's what essays are for. The book is very funny, though, and I enjoyed his commentary--particularly about reality TV. Fun read.

Steve Almond wrote in Candyfreak that he used to roll around in piles of candy when he was a kid. Now that he’s (chronologically, anyway) an adult, I think he’d like to roll around in piles of words. Almond is the kind of writer who sees and feels and loves and hates with abandon, and it’s clear that if he couldn’t put the words on the page, he’d explode.This collection of essays includes among other things, a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut, an explanation as to why Almond would like the Red Sox Natio...

For the record...I'm a fan of Steve Almond's writing, and; I do not like most modern essays. I'm probably one of the few readers who really can't stomach Augusten Burroughs and who finds David Sedaris to be only occasionally amusing, and nearly almost always self-aggrandizing.Now that this is out of the way, let me address this book in particular.Almond opens this book with the rather odd, and very immature little spoof/rant. Let's write letters to Oprah, trying to knock her down a peg, and then...