I straight up NEVER read nonfiction. I don't like it. It's boring. Where's the story? Is someone going to get punched? Anyone? Where is the writing style that doesn't make me want to shove a fork through my eye? I mean, these are all things I need..

However. Everyyyyyy once in a while, an exception comes along.

SAY HELLOOOOO TO THAT EXCEPTION.

This book is so fun!!!!!

It is not only fun; it is interesting. It is not only interesting; it is funny. It is not only funny; it is smart. In short, it is everything I need to have a good time while also feeling very pretentious and smart and patting myself on the back for eight consecutive weeks for reading anything with more literary merit than a young adult contemporary romance.

THE STANDARDS ARE LOW AND THAT'S JUST THE WAY I LIKE THEM.

So this book is about the recent (? semi-recent) trend of publicly shaming people on the Internet. Which is my favorite thing. Watching racists get sucker punched by the entirety of Twitter is my, like, religion. I pray at the altar of screenshots, you know? #JustMillennialThings.

So I was very curious to see if this book could convince me that this ultimate form of technological vigilante justice in any way a bad thing.

And it, um, kinda didn’t? And not for lack of trying. It definitely got me convinced that, like, hey, maybe we don’t need to ruin some of these people’s entire lives. And there was exactly one person in this book who I thought was totally undeserving of the shit storm she formally received, out of maybe 8 examples.

But I read this book shortly before Charlottesville, and it’s hard to look at the hardworking people of Twitter outing literal Nazis and be like, Hey. Bad. Because it isn’t. Vigilante justice can be sh*tty, but I’m not opposed to any anti-Nazi action. Any. Try me.

ANY.

I didn’t feel shamed by Ronson (buh dum ch), though, or anything. So it didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the book.

What diiiiiiid detract from my enjoyment was Ronson casually, easily, you know, just...totally shattering his authorial credibility to me as a reader. Fun stuff! But seriously, this whole book is about delving into people’s pasts to find out the things they’re most opposed to people finding out. Which is already thin ice. But there’s a moment when Ronson makes really clear that the only privacy he gives a sh*t about is his own. (BOOOOOO, shouts the audience.)

My guy Ronson (and I seriously did love his voice throughout this So Much, which makes this heartbreaking moment even more tragic) attends a class on how not to feel shame. This class begins with every person in it going around and stating something about themselves that they don’t want the other students to know. Ronson includes every person’s answer, which is...maybe not necessary. EXCEPT GUESS WHOSE ANSWER IS NOT INCLUDED. YEAH. YOU GUESSED IT. IT’S RONSON’S.

What kind of lack of integrity…

So I don’t know, man. I initially rated this five stars, because I read it in a day and had so much fun with it and also my brain felt all big afterward and it made me so pretentious that I wore a monocle for the next 8 consecutive business days, but there’s no way I can give that type of action five stars. That sh*t is NOT COOL JON.

But will I be reading other Ronson sh*t? Hell yeah I will.

Bottom line: A crazy good book with One Annoying Thing.

IS NOTHING EASY

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pre-review

I LOVED LOVED LOVED THIS BOOK.

i seriously couldn't put it down, and there exists a very limited number of nonfiction books i find un-put-down-able.

i am certain not a single one of you cares about my feelings on this book, and yet i will share them.

review to comeee