I've never reviewed a book without reading it, but I can't help commenting on an odd couple of books I stumbled across on Amazon. The first is, "How to Start a Magazine" by James Kobak, published in November 2002 by M. Evans and Company, Inc. The second is "How Not to Start a Magazine" by B. Ann Bell, published in January 2006 by Palfrey Media. The two books are paired as "Better Together".
I got a tremendous kick out of the "How Not To" in the title. I thought it was pretty original, until I searched on the phrase on Amazon. The top 10 relevant titles:
How Not To Become A Little Old Lady by Mary McHugh
How Not to Write a Screenplay: 101 Common Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make by Denny Martin Flinn
How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life: Opening Your Heart to Confidence, Intimacy, and Joy by Susan Piver
How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins
How Not to Look Fat by Danica Lo
How Not to Start Third Grade (Step into Reading) by Cathy Hapka, Ellen Titlebaum, and Debbie Palen
How Not to Audition: Avoiding the Common Mistakes Most Actors Make by Ellie Kanner and Denny Martin Flinn
How Not to Eat Pork, Or, Life Without the Pig by Shahrazad Ali
How Not to Write by Terence Denman
How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of Grammar by William Safire
So, not only isn't the idea that unique, but the last two books in this list with the same "How Not To Write" title were published within a couple months of each other in 2005! Amazon actually lists 380 books with "how not to" in the title.
And this concludes today's lesson on how not to write a blog post during Succos.
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