Customer Reviews

I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

All right, not just you - everyone needs it. Laughing is good and this book had my brother and I laughing to the point of unsightly drool. About 90 percent of our pages are dog-eared. I've personally recited drool-inducing parts to my parents and friends, and find myself constantly struggling not to snap book lines at the many alternative, empowered and positively annoying neighbors I have the pleasure of, like, melding energy with here in NYC's East Village. I'm all for empowerment. And whatever melding is. But I love that, in addition to taking pessimism to its hysterically funny extreme, "I Hate This Place" also satirizes the self-help craze and all of its super-duper-beluper positivity! and can-do affirmations! In fact, the Fallons include their own daily affirmations for the pessimist (personal favorites: "Tomorrow may never come" and "Today is another day, just like yesterday was"), as well as the truth behind such optimistic advice as, "A penny saved is a penny earned." ("Pennies are worthless.")

Thanks, Jimmy and Gloria. This book is well-needed, and much appreciated by me.

(Group hug?)

It's about time someone put all of those little sarcastic, negative thoughts we all have from time to time in a neat little collection that we can all laught at! Real life is ALWAYS more amusing than fiction, and Jimmy and Gloria offer a pessimistic but humorous view on everything from being single to public transportation in this book that after reading, you can't help but sharing with all of your friends. I've been a Jimmy fan since his debut on SNL and recommend it to all fans!

"I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life" is a clever assortment of pessimism at its very best. (It is also quite invigorating...with or without six cups of coffee.) Jimmy and Gloria Fallon, two "wild and crazy" siblings, have collaborated to create a fine owner's manual that successfully explains the pessimistic mind. No need to bring an umbrella. It won't rain on your parade...it's probably been cancelled, anyway. On a lighter note...Be sure to throw out all of your pennies, because, after all, "pennies are worthless." (Unless, of course, you superglue them to the floor of a subway train--when people try to pick them up, they retain some entertainment value.)

As I read this book, I was saying to myself, 'Oh my God, I can totally relate to this stuff!'. (Why did I waste my money on those STUPID find-your-inner-self-and-five-seconds-later-still-be-miserable books? WHY? ). Jimmy and Gloria have given the most perfect guide to life for those who know that life is not always what it's cracked up to be. To all the pessimists ;and those born in the '70s, educated in the '80s (and the early '90s) , and living life like it REALLY is in the late '90s, out there, YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK!

I Hate This Place is a great book--funny and very clever. It includes all those things we (well, most of us) often think of but can never actually put into words (especially not this witty). I've often thought of myself as an optimist but after reading this book, I have to say that I'm probably not. Jimmy and Gloria Fallon (whom I got to meet at a book signing--very cool) are two ingenious and unique people who aren't afraid to tell it like it is. Highly recommended!

Apparently humor runs in the Fallon family. These two reflecta genius that so rarely can be seen in people from upstate New York.This book, a clever collection of snide observations and thoughts, causes even the most diehard, bitter pessimist to laugh out loud. And that, my book-buying friends, is comedy.

I'm a big fan of author Karen Salmansohn -- for example I love her book, 'How To Be Happy, Dammit' which is a humorous guide to happiness for pessimists. So I am very happy to discover Fallon & Fallon's 'I Hate This Place' -- it is nice to find something new to enjoy. I feel that it is especially important for pessimists to find opportunities to laugh, even if with ironic or sardonic overtones. And Fallon & Fallon's book will make you laugh; they are extremely, deeply funny. There is something to be said for 'serious' books about pessimists and pessimism, such as 'The Positive Power of Negative Thinking' but I think humor is required for life as a pessimist (or cynic). So I recommend 'I Hate This Place' for what it is -- the truly funniest version of a Pessimist's Guide to Life. Fallon & Fallon are gifted humorists.

After some minor delays, UPS and his reindeers finally showed up with this book - AND BOY WAS IT WORTH IT! These guys can see the bad side to a bowl of Jello! Anyone who knows that 'Are we having fun or what?' really means 'What?' gets 11/10 in my book! When do we see the sequel! I can't wait!

I won't bother to mimic the pedestrian one-liners in this book. The bottom line is, it just is not funny. I was trying to imagine Fallon running drafts or suggestions for the book by Tina Fey and others at SNL, and I can not imagine they would laugh. If they did, it would be for charity like the reaction people give when the retarded uncle is pitching his latest get-rich-quick scheme at a family reunion. These are like Steven Wright rejects. There wasn't anything biting, ironic, or even dark. Oh wait...I am geting an inspiration for another...

Don't clean up the spilled milk you are crying over, you will be spilling another soon anyway.

If that is funny to you, you will like this book. If that is funny to you, it would be in your best interest to buy a book of Family Circus cartoons or some wacky stickers to put up in your room instead of this book.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy and Gloria Fallon at the the first stop of their book signing last night. They're both very funny people (duh, obviously) and the book is hilarious. I found that I've been doing and saying a lot of what they wrote for years, so it hit really close to home. Every thing you read will make you go, "...wait, yeah!" Good job you guys!