Read this book

I just finished How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young. It's a non-fiction book about his experiences working for Vanity Fair magazine and his life in New York.

At a later time, I'm going to post some interesting passages from it, but for now, I want to mention it because it's better than a lot of fiction I've read. I started reading a New York Times bestselling novel at the same time I started reading his book, but I gave up on the novel because it was so boring--the author would describe every inch of a room, for instance, and one room would continue for a few pages. Also, there wasn't much of a plot, and the main character was passive. It's probably one of the few instances of a movie being better than the book.

But Toby Young's memoir is both entertaining and thought-provoking, though I didn't like the vulgar language he used when describing women. It seems like the first half of the book had a layer of sadness, and the second half seemed to be written with more emotional distance, as if he'd gotten over the constant rejection and failure. Even though I don't read any of the magazines he mentioned, I've never lived in New York, and I have a different lifestyle than he had, I could identify with what he was going through.