I Am What I Ate...and I'm Frightened!!! [Hardcover]

Bill Cosby (Author), George Booth (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2003

The legendary Bill Cosby, America’s most well-known comic, wants food lovers and over indulgers everywhere to know that they are not alone. Yes, just like the rest of us -- he is frightened -- especially if we've paid any attention lately to the front-page headlines and daily reports on the nightly news:

• Cholesterol Kills!"
• Cookies Clog Arteries!"
• Meatball Sandwiches Cause God Knows What"
• Repent and Exercise -- or Else!"

In this original collection of humorous musings and digressions about our obsessions, the incomparable Doctor of Comedy is right on target as he reflects back on his own sixty-five years of dining at the banquet of life -- from the hoagies to the stogies to every death-defying delicacy in between. Who better than the man who made an international hero out of a boy named Fat Albert, to aim his great wit, wisdom, and observational talent at our national obsession with food and our never-ending quest for a healthy lifestyle.

Bill Cosby is stepping up to the plate -- literally -- in this hilarious new book about his own lifelong cravings and snack attacks ... as well as his hopes that one day, sooner rather than later, pizza will be found to be a cure for heart disease and high cholesterol.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest book, the 65-year-old Cosby targets newly minted seniors (like himself) who find their bodies are heavier, slower and creakier than they ever expected. The title refers to Cosby's own experience with a 30-percent blockage in his carotid artery that qualified him for cardiac rehab and greatly increased his risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. "Now I know I'm a walking time bomb," Cosby writes-and tries to play the situation for laughs. In meandering and exasperatingly redundant prose, Cosby describes how he now must sneak chocolate chip cookies when his wife isn't looking, and how he daydreams about the bacon, butter, ice cream, croissants, pies and "cheese, cheese, cheese" that he used to enjoy before his doctor put him on a diet. While Cosby's previous book, Fatherhood, elicited plenty of belly laughs, they are few and far between here. The biggest chuckles can be found when he segues into a critique of smokers, especially his anecdote about a houseguest who braves the weather to smoke outside, though it's 12 degrees below zero. Cosby also deftly critiques typically American paradoxes such as his mother's inability to stop eating fried lamb chops even after she has a series of strokes, and the whiskey-drinking done by a group of grieving friends after one of their alcoholic buddies dies of cirrhosis. But it's hard to appreciate Cosby's jokes when it's obvious that that the health of the people he makes fun of-including himself-appears doomed. Gallows humor has never been Cosby's forte, and readers who enjoyed his lighter works may be disappointed by this volume.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Bill Cosby's television series aren't much good anymore, but every now and then, there's one of those priceless Cosby moments that makes us remember a monologue from the early days. So, too, with his books, which routinely climb best-seller lists mainly as a testament to the entertainer's status as a much-loved celebrity. The pattern holds with his latest, in which Cosby muses on a lifetime of eating the wrong foods ("Chocolate cake! Cheese! Ham! Seven slices of leftover pizza! "). At age 68--and boasting a cholesterol number in the stratosphere--it's time for the pizza man to change his ways. Fans will love the accounts of Cosby struggling with his baser instincts, culinarily speaking, as he tries to follow the strictures of his wife and doctor. Unfortunately, though, much of this material is ordinary at best, nowhere near as funny as similarly themed jeremiads from Calvin Trillin. Still, you can't help hearing Cosby utter the lines as if he were performing a monologue, and that makes them funnier somehow. And his wild digressions, always a key part of his comedy, are on the mark here: rants on bureaucracy in the home, on the name Myrtle, and on positioning yourself in a recliner are among the funniest bits in the book. Hit and miss, then, but from a cultural icon, that's more than enough to draw a crowd. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (October 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060734892
• ISBN-13: 978-0060545734
• ASIN: 0060545739
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The legendary comedian, author, and activist Bill Cosby continues to be as prolific and relevant as ever, reaching every generation and every audience since he began his career in stand-up four decades ago. He is one of the most influential performers of the second half of the 20th century. He has had an unparalleled career in television; has sold more record albums than any other comedian; his blockbuster books have sold millions of copies; and his generous support of numerous charities, particularly in the field of education, have endowed many Americans with the gift of hope and learning. Through his groundbreaking appearances on television, particularly in two landmark series each of which defined an American decade, Bill Cosby has touched the lives of millions of Americans. In the 1960s, "I Spy" broke the racial barrier in television by featuring Cosby as the first-ever black lead of a weekly dramatic series. In the 1980s, Cosby returned to television with a show that Coretta Scott King described as "the most positive portrayal of black family life that has ever been broadcast." "The Cosby Show" enjoyed years of number-one ratings and nearly unanimous critical praise.

Cosby's success on television has been matched in other areas. In 1986 he broke Radio City Music Hall's 53-year-old attendance record for his concert appearance. Cosby's also a giant in the publishing world. Fatherhood (1986) became one of the fastest-selling hardcover book of all time, remaining for more than half of its fifty-four weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List as Number 1. It has sold 2.6 million hardcover copies and 1.5 million paperbacks. Time Flies had the largest single first printing in publishing history--1.75 million. Now, I Am What I Ate,and I'm Frightened. A crusader throughout his career for a better world, his great success in the world of entertainment is complemented by his involvement with a host of charity organizations, making substantial gifts in support of education, most notably to predominantly black colleges and to various social service and civil rights organizations. On the evolution of his own style of comedy, Bill Cosby states that he was drawn at an early age to the masters of jazz, learning to emulate in comedy their ability to take an idea and continually find new and innovative ways of expressing the same theme. The legacy of Bill Cosby's comedic genius is as sweet, meaningful and universal as any piece of music ever played.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Humor with some seriousness..., November 17, 2003

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Am What I Ate...and I'm Frightened!!! (Hardcover)

This is a short little book that covers Cosby's thoughts on growing old, having your body wear out, and how we're obsessed with wanting to be healthy without making any changes to our lifestyle.

While he's trying to be humorous, I think he's trying to make some serious points about our society. Such as, how people who are smokers will go to incredible lengths and discomforts to be able to have a cigarette. Or how people who need to change their eating habits will play mental games to try and avoid it (or ask for drugs to erase the effects of the bad food). Too much of it rings true...

If you have a chance to read it, I would recommend the book. Don't know that I would go out of my way to buy it, but having a library a block away makes some things much easier... :-)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Doctor Makes Us Smile, April 9, 2004

By 

Eric Wilson "novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: I Am What I Ate...and I'm Frightened!!! (Hardcover)

Since childhood, Cosby has made me laugh. He's proven that humor can be funny and clean simultaneously. His facial gestures, his voices, his rolled eyes, all add to the comedic experience.

In "I Am What I Ate..." Cosby tackles the issues of health and dying in the grand tradition of irreverence. Speaking from a platform of retirement age, he can get away with this--particularly when he's throwing barbs at himself. The sections on food and smoking had me laughing out loud. Interspersed, Cosby adds some wry insight to the indulgent American mindset. The writing is conversational and breezy. I could almost imagine that Bill Cosby was reading it aloud.

And that's my only complaint. He wasn't reading it. He wasn't even in the room. Much of his humor works wonderfully in a live setting, but here it brought mostly smiles, few actual laughs.

For a lightweight look at a heavyweight subject, this book is fun. I'd still rather see the man live. Please, Cosby, hold off on any funerals...we love having you around!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not What I Expected, January 8, 2005

By 

Robert Culbertson (Tenafly, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Am What I Ate...and I'm Frightened!!! (Hardcover)

In this book, Bill Cosby discusses, in a humorous way, various changes he has experienced at age 65 and his struggles to give up his excessive, unhealthy eating habits after learning from his doctor that he has very high cholesterol and a thirty percent blockage in the carotid artery.

While it is neither the roaringly humorous book I expected nor a preachy diet book, it is a quick and pleasant read that had me chuckling quite a bit and identifying with many of his observations. His casual writing style, delivered as though he were sitting next to you and talking, accurately captures many of the rationalizations people often use to justify behavior they know is not in their best interest, be it smoking, drinking or eating fat and cholesterol-laden foods. I thought one of the funniest sections was his discussion of hair and skin, where he observes that "as you get older, you don't have oil. The skin is drier." And, regarding hair, he wants to know why he lost hair from the top of his head and it came out on his back and in his nose and ears. Gray hair at that! "What am I turning into?", he asks. I suspect there are a few of us in our fifties and sixties who have had similar thoughts. He also cites his father as having compared the human body to a machine, which, at age 65, has "old parts" -- a simplistic but plausible explanation for many of the aches, pains and limitations one experiences in the later years.

In all, the book is funny and enjoyable. And, possibly, it may be helpful to those struggling with changing their eating habits and other aspects of getting older, as they step back and see it through Bill Cosby's eyes.