Customer Reviews

Daily Negations

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here's a happy thought for you: "Something I do today could turn out to be something I will regret for the rest of my life." Or how about this? "The more I think about a problem, the bigger it gets. ...Problems are hard. No wonder there are no solutions." So goes the mind of John S. Hall, who drily records 366 times (one extra for leap year) his negative thoughts. Soft Skull Press, out of Brooklyn, New York, has cleverly packaged Mr. Hall's droll misery in a compact 4 inch by 6 inch trim size to model itself after other pocket-sized books of daily inspiration. But here there are no high-flying affirmations to get you through this vale of tears. Sorry, but those ubiquitous platitudes of cheer can be copiously found in the "Inspiration" section of your local Borders or Barnes & Nobles. Mr. Hall is made of more mutable stuff and remains firmly embedded in failure, misery, mortality, and hopelessness. Although the result of his musings can sometimes be truly depressing and unfunny, chances are you'll hit on a hilarious and familiar piece of negative thinking that will make you erupt out loud in a tension-relieving burst of laughter. Are you laughing at Mr. Hall's failed life or with him? Are you feeling guilty for feeling amused? Aw, forget it and enjoy the darned book!

I shared some of these selections with a psychotherapist friend of mine, and nine times out of ten, we loved them! She wanted to give some of these bits of negative thoughts to a few of her patients so that maybe they could just laugh at their own hopeless patterns, which maybe might help them find their way out of them, or not! I advised her not to use this one: "Today, it may seem as if there are demons attacking me from within. I should remember that demons are illusory, and that when I think that I'm being attacked by unseen forces, it probably just means that I am going insane."

January 9 - "When I spend time with young children, I can sometimes see innocence and joy on their faces, and it makes me think about how disappointed I was when I got older and learned [...] how mediocre life is: how everybody is greedy and small and a liar, how everybody let me down. Perhaps one day, I will disappoint a small child, and teach her a painful lesson about life. In this sense, we are all potential teachers."

This is just one of the 366 negative thoughts presented in John S. Hall's latest offering. Some, like the entry above, are ironically inspirational, others humorously bleak and others starkly insightful while still maintaining a sarcastic tone. They are each written with wit, talent and skill, rarely becoming redundant. There is hardly any filler to be found, as you might expect in a book such as this. It's also immensely fun and accessible - as the entries are short, you can open to any page for a quick laugh or read one in the morning for a daily dose of bleak honesty. Read the entry of today, read your birthday entry, or read friends their birthday entries without providing any disclaimer. You will have trouble putting this book down for sure, and there's enough material to keep you entertained for a long time.

However, there are plenty of entries that are more depressing than witty, but this still works if seen as a parody of books of inspirational thoughts to get you through the day and therefore to be read one at a time rather than all the way through. The reader must remember that it's satire; otherwise, certain pages of this book would be simply depressing. If you can keep this in mind, it's still a great book.

"Daily Negations" is a comedy/philosophy based book, meant to be taken as being a joke. You read the daily devotional for every day of the year, much like the contrast books that are intended to be self-affirmation, but this book by John S. Hall is in the opposite direction. You will read pathetic negativity that only a loser would say about their hopeless life. It is supposed to be funny. I would say about 60% is funny, and about 10% of the book is hilarious. You need to be content and well-adjusted about your own life to begin with. This book isn't supposed to be your mantra, or even as a starting point to avoid. This book is supposed to be light-hearted, funny, and published in the Comedy genre. I'm not sure what everybody else expects when they buy a book these days, but I felt compensated after my purchase of "Daily Negations" by John S. Hall. I would recommend this book, but only to people with a solid sense of humor and who don't take themselves or life very seriously. Not as corny as it could have been, but written from a perspective to keep fairly politically correct and avoid cussing and swearing, I suppose not too bad. I wouldn't give this a 5 star rating, but I will give it better than just a 2 or less. Probably more like 3-1/2 actually.

Forget Einstein! John S Hall is THE man. Amazing thinker, writer, reciter. Just the nuclear bomb.

I was attempting to purchase the "first" version of this book, which turns out to be completely different than this one. The writer sounds pathetic. The entries are short, not funny, not inspiring in any way, and not really "negative." I've never thrown a book in the trash before, until this one. Save your money.