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Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction [Paperback]

Ben Stiller , Janeane Garofalo
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 4, 2000
"We are professionals. Though not specifically professionals in the field of 'psychology' or 'psychiatry,' we are both highly paid actors and comedians, and as such know more about neuroses than you could possibly imagine. . . ."

If you're tired of following the rules, dating people from Mars and Venus, gorging on chicken soup for your soul, or getting lost on a road less traveled, then it's time you listened to Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, two people who actually sweat the small stuff . . . because, let's face it, if your body doesn't sweat, it dies--much like Ben and Janeane's train wreck of a relationship many years ago. From that experience came wisdom and self-reproachment. Now, in Feel This Book, they tackle the tough questions:

- Is love necessary?
- How can I make money off my spouse?
- Compassion--is it overrated?
- Why can't I sleep around and still love you?
- How many times have you told your significant other that you would pick up something for dinner on your way home from the office, and next thing you knew you're at an all-night eatery with some hermaphrodite you found on the strip, having eggs and bacon at three in the morning?

Through helpful tips, completely fabricated case studies, the six laws of spiritual success, the fourteen by-laws of spiritual awakening, and the twenty-three addendums and sub-laws regarding anything spiritual and successful, Stiller and Garofalo teach such valuable lessons as:

- When it comes to family, grasp onto the blame and don't let go
- Make the connection . . . between Deepak and Tupac
- Your mother lied; looks are everything, and the sooner you submit and stop denying the inevitable, the happier you will be
- And much more!

Feel This Book. Let it be your path, your compass, your sensible shoes, your Frappuccino®. It's what self-help was meant to be.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A warning to readers: though Ben Stiller (Flirting with Disaster) and Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats and Dogs) used to be a couple, do not confuse their advice book with Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul. This is more of a cross between James Thurber and E.B. White's satirical Is Sex Necessary? and MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head: Chicken Soup for the Butt.

The ex-couple give us alternating chapters of remarkably rambling, extravagantly ironic, showbiz-insider's philosophical musings, but they do discuss their actual relationship, just to let you know where they stand--right on your funny bone, exerting maximum pressure until you beg for mercy. After their breakup, writes Garofalo, "We agreed that in the future we would only meet for professional purposes, or if we were drunk and felt like having emotionally destructive sex."

This faux tome (also read by the authors on audiocassette) is a meeting of the minds for professional purposes. But again, don't be fooled by what these wily authors say! The intriguing chapters referred to in the opening pages--"Why Can't I Sleep Around and Still Love You?"; "How to Fake an Orgasm to Show Your Love, or The Art of the Squeal"; "Negotiating with God for What You Want--and Getting It!"; "Pros and (Very Few) Cons of a Third Party in the Bedroom"--these chapters do not in fact exist! What does exist is a dog's breakfast of jokes from a pair of clowns. Read it and weep, but heed it at your peril. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Television-bred celebrities as humor authorsAthe likes of Paul Reiser and Drew CareyAhave used spoken audio as a means to help establish their literary audiences. Books on tape offer a natural conduit for such actors' messages, better, often, than the print versions. Stiller and Garofalo, both young, sophisticated and genuinely funny film actors, go a step further, parodying one of audio's nonfiction staples: self-help tapes. They start with dry disclaimers, stating that they are celebrities and so know nothing of psychology, then describe calls from their agents asking them to record "a funny audiobook about relationships." Taking the classic he-said/she-said format, the two trade off with first-person vignettes that tell a modern love story, with all its "mistakes." Stiller tells of going home with Garofalo to meet "her people" in Nutley, N.J. She counters with descriptions of his goofy behavior once there. The humor is deadpan, with a bitingly sarcastic undercurrent. There is good chemistry between the pair, lending to a sense of playfulness and spontaneity often absent from audio programs. Stiller and Garofalo know their audience wellAand just how to play them. Based on the 1999 Ballantine hardcover. Also available on CD. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 4, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345412931
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345412935
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #805,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Feel this Book is a waste; totally unreadable. Mark Hughes (mwhughes@fedex.com)  |  9 reviewers made a similar statement
Don't waste your time....I'm sad I did. Caroline P. Hampton  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
This book is not worth the time or the money that in essence is exactly what the authors were after. Amanda Berlin  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Feel This Book. July 26, 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
After a whole school year of reading classical literature, I bought this book to loosen up and get a laugh. A lot of stuff in this book is funny, other parts are simply clever. I'll admit that I found JG's essays a little redundant and she writes a little harshly, while Ben's additions (building yourself a "linen" cave, Mama Whitefeather's ring toss antics, and his hilarious lumberjack experience) were a lot funnier than Janeane's "inner warrior." The low points are that JG and BS don't really compliment each other and there is no real THEME to the book. This is no classic and I think that Ben's constant rantings about how he wants to make money off the book are not funny, but scary. Also, some of the references will become dated within a few years. Another downside of this book is that it's only funny the first time you read it; I read over a few of Ben's chapters a couple of months later and I didn't even laugh once. Still, if you want a quick laugh, pick up this book, and then read some Virginia Woolf so you can feel intellectual again. 3 stars.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Feel our pain! December 7, 1999
Format:Hardcover
I love Stiller and Garofalo, but as I read this book, I kept waiting for the funny part. Imagine how disappointed I was to get to the end and not find it! I was looking under the book jacket for hidden pages or SOMETHING, anything satisfying.

As much as I really want to love everything they do, their comedy just doesn't translate to the printed page. This book is a series of lukewarm essays that, although they may have their moments (Stiller's roadtrip diary being one of them), don't build on each other, and never attain critical mass. My suggestion: If you want to support Ben and Janeane, buy the book, but spare yourself the pain and don't read it.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I felt this Book June 11, 2004
Format:Hardcover
I felt this book. Not just felt it, like holding it, I mean you have to hold a book to read it, but what I mean is I loved this book. It helped me get in touch with my inner comedian, the guy inside of me who wants to host a radio talk show and make $10,000,000 starring in a motion picture. Every chapter is hysterically funny. Well, not every chapter. The one by Ben Stiller having a guardian angel who looked like Hoss Cartwright is kind of like a bad sketch comedy bit that goes no where, but everything else in the book is right on and cool, to quote hip seventies language.
I guess it is kind of wierd to be praising a book five years after it came out and everybody else reviewed it five years ago. Okay, so I'm a little behind, but so what? Maybe this book was ahead of its time, maybe its time is now. Maybe Ben Stiller and Janeane Garafolo, Garofolo, Garofalo's time is now. They seem to be doing pretty well, Janeane is doing that terrific radio talk show and Ben is making a movie every other month, and I see all of them. Well, I didn't see the recent one with Jack Black, but that was in and out of the theater in like two days, but I did see "Meet the Parents" twice in the movies and twice on TV, and I'm waiting for the sequel which I have heard Barbara Streisand is going to be in.
Anyways this book has really helped me. It hasn't helped me to sell any of my thirteen screenplays which nobody has bought, but it has helped me to see being pathetic as a source of humor. That's good and amazing. Well, maybe not amazing, but interesting. And believe it or not I finished it in one afternoon, and I never did finish that book by Ellen Degeneris. Maybe, I'll finish that book today and write a review of it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Can you spell DUD?! August 4, 1999
Format:Hardcover
It is a shame that this book is a total disappointment. I am such a fan of these two! But they could have been so much more witty and I expected so much more. The reading level was designed for 2nd graders. The letters are big and the chapters are skimpy! Looks like they rushed to meet a deadline.

It was an AWESOME concept, and I think they should try again and really spend time on putting it together. They are SO much funnier than this, I know this isn't their best work.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars False Advertising August 14, 2001
By Ms Diva
Format:Audio Cassette
I love Stiller and Garofalo, and I thought the concept of the book was fabulous. But the content inside the book didn't match the back cover. It was like a mishmash of essays that didn't fit together. Alot of it, while interesting, didn't make me laugh. Even the stuff that did make me laugh was tepid at best. Definitely not something I'd read twice or want to keep. The only reason I'm not giving it a lower mark is because the he said/she said really was good, and some of Garofalo's writing is high quality. I do have to also say that I think I would have found some of it funnier in audio format.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Clambake January 25, 2000
Format:Hardcover
I LOVE Ben and Janeane as much as the next guy - okay, probably more than most (I really liked Mystery Men) BUT this is AWFUL! I hope they made boatloads of money because it certainly doesn't do much for their creative credibility. I didn't laugh once and struggled to find what would be considered funny to others. As an English teacher once scrawled on one of my papers- this has all the earmarks of a rush-job. Either they tried too hard to be funny or they didn't try at all. Either way, this is a lame book that I would even wrap up and pass off to someone else. Bummer.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Who Are These Mystery Men, Really? August 12, 2000
Format:Paperback
There should be a warning on the cover of this book: FASTEN YOUR SEAT-BELTS, IT'S GOING TO BE A BUMPY RIDE, because I guarantee that by the time you're deep into "Feel This Book," you're head is going to be swiveling around on your neck till you feel like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist." Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo take it upon themselves to lead you down a path few have traveled, with this self-styled "essential guide to empowerment" and other stuff. What you get will include a lot of cryptic, mysterious, sometimes amazing and often unbelievable passages that will leave you a) laughing. (A lot); b) scratching you head (A whole lot); c) looking at yourself in the mirror (frequently); d) wondering about the true nature of the entire Universe as we know it (and even the parts we don't have a clue about); e) see "a;" and f) asking yourself, "Who are these people, really?" In alternating chapters, beginning with a "He said, she said" brutally honest (?) account of their own relationship, they tell stories, share observations and generally do a stand-up job of entertaining the reader. Stiller gives new definition to the term "deadpan" with as wry a delivery as anything this side of a pastrami on, well, you know. Garofalo on the other hand fires up her acerbic wit to deliver such scathing commentary that no-one on the planet will be able to escape unimpaired. She caustically shares her (extremely low) opinions of just about everybody and everything (apparently including herself), and leaves you wondering just who her target audience is, since her barrage levels everyone in her path (as well as any and all innocent bystanders). However (and call this contradictory if you will), as you're going down, you'll be going down laughing. Really. It's that kind of book.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Book review
The book was in excellent condiiton. It looked practically new. The book is hilarious. Its a dark comedy a lot of sarcasm and wittiness. Read more
Published on April 25, 2009 by Karina Lopez
1.0 out of 5 stars A badly written, lazy piece of writing....inexcusable in my opinion...
I paged through this thing while hanging out at a Borders, and it was pretty awful. It seemed like it was written in a day or two, and as some have said, it was probably done just... Read more
Published on July 6, 2007 by Grigory's Girl
3.0 out of 5 stars A recommendation from the Washington Post
From The Washington Post, 'The Tortured Lives of Interrogators,' June 4 2007.

"Not long ago in Iraq, he felt "absolute power," he said, over men kept in cages. Read more
Published on June 3, 2007 by A. Hirsch
1.0 out of 5 stars Unbearable
A few of Janeane's chapters have one or two funny moments, but Ben Stiller's are not to be borne.

Almost nothing that Stiller writes has any laughs whatsoever. Read more
Published on December 4, 2006 by John P Bernat
5.0 out of 5 stars What a duo.
A laugh riot! Me and my brother read this and couldn't stop laughing. A must-read!
Published on March 10, 2006 by Film Noir Fedora
1.0 out of 5 stars Just Plain Awful
I've never really been a fan of Ben Stiller, but I picked this one up for Janeane's writing. Unfortunately, neither one of them delivered. Read more
Published on April 28, 2004 by Chris Frost
3.0 out of 5 stars Feel This Review
The title, a pun on Abbie Hoffman's book, _Steal This Book_ (Garofalo did play Hoffman's wife in the movie, Steal this Movie). And it goes from there. Read more
Published on June 18, 2003 by adead_poet@hotmail.com
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites
I'm some-what of a fan of both Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, so I was curious about this book. It's very well done, and funny... Read more
Published on July 28, 2002 by K. A D. Veer
1.0 out of 5 stars Starts off bad, gets worse
I listened to the audiobook, which I assume is better than the book because listeners get to hear the authors delivering their own material, and they don't read all the essays,... Read more
Published on January 3, 2002 by Tonstant Weader
1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Silly Stuff...
The one thing you can count on with some "celebrities" is that they are going to think they are so verrrry much cuter than they really are. Read more
Published on November 21, 2001 by A Positive Guy
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