Customer Reviews

How to Ruin Your Life

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

 

 

...there really are only a few simple rules to getting along in this world. Plus, some people need to be told the same thing several times in several different ways just to grasp a new concept. My copy is going straight to the shelves on my high school classroom's library.

There are 2 versions of this title on the market. One is just the first book in this series entitled "How to Ruin Your Life."

The other includes 3 titles under one cover:

"How to Ruin Your Life"
"How to Ruin Your Love Life"
"How to Ruin Your Finanancial Life"

I love Ben Stein. This book is definitely worth reading. I really enjoyed it, mainly because i enjoy Ben Stein's sense of humor and writing style.

This book is great. It really makes you think. You cant put yourself down more than ben stein does so there is no place else to go but up!!!!! Love the book. Great condition and arrived on time...whatelse could one ask for?

You will enjoy this book, and it will give you such good life lessons! A great conversation starter!

While the concepts are wise, the writing style lays it on so thickly -- basically, "You're God's representative on earth, so why should you care?" I think this book would sink home better if it were written to better reflect the actual mentality of people who ascribe to these erroneous ways of thinking. But as soon as the author gets absolutely carried away, he loses his chance to teach because it becomes impossible for a reader to see himself in these bizarre, exaggerated mindsets. Too bad. It was a good idea, just way, way over the top.

Since I loathed the "documentary" "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," I thought I would give Stein another chance. And this stinkbomb exploded in my face.

First off, Stein is obviously trying to be funny when discussing generic problems. But the humor is dead weight, bitter and dusty, even base. He's just not as amusing as he thinks he is. I am surprised his editor did not notice this and ask him to try to write a more straightforward book free from attempts at satire that come off as simply callous and even gleefully cruel.

There is absolutely nothing in this book that you could not get from talking to a loving, no-nonsense grandmother, and for free. Stein comes off, frankly, as a condescending boor, the paradigm of the stuffed-shirt "rich uncle" who seems to think that the world would be a better place if everyone was just like him. An exercise in the most appalling conceit that also seems to be disturbingly based on the assumption that every person and their situaton is more or less the same. It's so blandly conformist it's almost to the point of being a shade "creepy."

If you want real-world advice like this, talk to your mother, your grandmother, or your best a tell-it-like-it-is friend. And that won't cost you a copper farthing. And no one will intone, "Bueller, Bueller . . . . " But don't pay hard-earned cash for something you can get for absolutely nothing and from someone who actually cares instead of a wet blanket who only pretends to.

NO recommendation.

This book is really not very good. It is a waste of time. The only thing I found funny was the chapter titles. The rest of the material is just fluff and a way for Ben Stein to cash in. I bought the book, read about 20 pages and finally gave up.