How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
by Toby Young
Rating: 7 out of 10

I was recommended this book by Amazon.com because of my affinity for all things Nick Hornby (and all things British for that matter). I’ve had it for quite a while (I even started it about 8 months ago, but only got about 4 pages in) and I decided that with the book project, I would have to just read it.

Despite the absolute vanity and sophomoric behavior of the author, Toby Young, I really liked this book.

Young is a freelance journalist who worked for a stint during the late 1990′s for the prestigious glossy magazine, Vanity Fair for the famous editor, Graydon Carter. How Young ever got his invitation to work at the magazine is beyond me, but I’ve never read any of his stuff besides his book, so I’m not really one to judge.

Anyway, despite his boorish behavior and absolute disregard for normal social mores (I believe that if I were English, I would call him a “tosser”), Young manages to come across as intelligent and well-spoken, even if his actions would suggest otherwise. What I liked about this book was how Young (who was, in a way, a gossip columnist, in a really swanky magazine) managed to maintain his integrity to an era of journalism that he admired (the Roaring ’20s) in an era of journalism that shunned everything that he held dear to that time in history.

There really no doubt that at the end of the day, Toby Young is a cad. However, you can’t help but sympathize with him…it seems like he can’t really change that.

I really thought he was a pretty good storyteller and I enjoyed the book.

I’m jumping over Sacred Marriage right now and I’m going to start on Silent Bob Speaks. I want to get somewhat ahead of the game this month and I know that it will be a pretty quick read. Plus, we are thinking about reading Sacred Marriage for our Young Adult class at church. I’m still going to read it even if we don’t, but just in case we do, I’m going to wait.