Scream Free - Initial Response

We're not starting off on a good foot with this one.

First off, I am a very firm believer that no one should ever read their own writing to others. You think you're a lot funnier than the rest of us do and you think what you've written is clearly brilliant. The rest of us may not agree. But in either case, whether or not we appreciate the writing can very quickly be overshadowed by how poorly it is read.

The Love and Respect author did read his own book too, and there were definitely sections where he clearly thought he was hysterical, but overall it wasn't too bad and he did a decent job.

Then there are those people who may be good writers, but not necessarily good readers. You can't read an audio book the same way that you would give a live presentation and you can't read it like you're reading a teleprompter with hiccups. That would be this guy.

Secondly, I am also a very firm believer that if you want to write a self help book, you should not start off by telling your readers that everything they read previously is wrong and is probably part of whatever problem they're having. That is one of the highest form of arrogance I can think of and once my brain has put you in the "you're kinda full of yourself, huh" category, you're there for the duration and it flavors everything else you say.

Thirdly, never, ever, ever, ever put The Forty Year Old Virgin in the category of Romantic Comedy (he actually says RomCom, repeatedly, it hurt every time) and most assuredly, more than anything else that may ever come out of your mouth for the rest of your life, don't ever, ever, put that movie as categorically relevant to When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle in terms of movie's people watch to feel good about the character's relationships and happy endings.

I about went off the road when he put those three movies together.

I am only 20 minutes into this and am not sure how far I'm going to make it. I'll give him some more time to get past his painful intro and will keep my fingers crossed that the actual book information will be better. This however, is an 8 hour recording. Love and Respect was 3 hours. Which is about right. I don't know what this guy has to say that is going to take 8 hours to get through.

We will see.

Or not.