Customer Reviews

The Joy of Doing Things Badly: A Girl's Guide to Love, Life and Foolish Bravery

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

 

 

This book was great company on train rides home. I like the way Chambers gives her wisdom, but admits when she is clueless about something. In the "I did it, so can you" vain, I found some of her advice to be cliched, but she is savvy enough to say, "this is going to sound like a cliche", which reminds us that there are reasons these things stick around: they are true. I've never read any of her fiction, but I will now!

I really liked this book because Veronica Chambers approaches life in a can-do kind of way. Problems, what problems. In a one man's junk is another man's treasure kind of way, Chambers embraces the notion of problems only being problems if you perceive them to be. Her solutions vary but ultimately they come down to learning to be thoughtful, choosing your battles, knowing that this too shall pass and that trouble don't last always. Far from being a treatise on approaching life wearing rose colored glasses, "The Joy of Doing Things Badly" urges us to face life head on and enjoy it.

Veronica Chamber's second nonfiction book, The Joy of Doing Things Badly, is essentially about acceptance and living one's life on your own terms. Most of us go through life beating ourselves up for our frailties and faults instead of allowing ourselves to learn from our mistakes gracefully. Chambers presents lessons about love, friendships, relationships and career but most importantly she chronicles the joys and sorrows of coming to a place of her own peace and acceptance of herself.

Chambers did not have a happy childhood; however she went to a private college at age sixteen, majored in journalism and has worked for several publications including Glamour and New York Times Magazine. Her career has been a series of ups and downs; an editor once told her she was a bad writer and threw back every idea she pitched. What could have been career suicide for most writers only made her stronger and more determined to do what she needed to overcome that obstacle. It is okay to fall flat on your face, just get up and run faster.

How to be happy in one's own skin, when to let go of toxic relationships and learning from financial mishaps read like a road map to personal success. It was fun to read about Chambers extensive travels; how it has enriched her life and how essential it is to keeping her sanity. She paints a picture of content in traveling abroad alone and her positive experience living briefly in Japan

There are a lot of wise saying and thus wisdom dispensed. "There is no shortage of people who will tell you what you can't do, but these same people don't always have a lot of encouraging advice about what you should be doing....pg. 5.and "Too often, we hear compliments about another person, by the same fashion, we do not hear compliments about ourselves at all." pg. 116.

Most impressive was how the author, when in her twenties, constructed a book by cutting out pictures of women she admired who were in their 30s and older and writing captions of what she admired most about these women. It was something she could look at occasionally and visualize herself as she worked toward her goals. Most women might find much of the advice ordinary common sense and just living and learning but this is an excellent treatise for younger women in high school, college and those in their twenties to read as they negotiate their journey through life. There is even a Joy newsletter you can obtain by writing to joyofdoingthingsbadly@yahoo.com.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub
www.apooo.org

I was instantly sold on the title of this book before I even held it in my hands. It was everything I expected and more. There were so many things that I related to that I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting. The one thing that I took from this book is the confidence to not be good at something...and doing that something for the simple joy of doing it. The day after I read this book, I went out and bought a new journal (I had been going through some serious turmoil) and began writing. And writing and writing. I wrote the entire first draft of my memoir by hand in nine days. This started on April 9, 2006 and my memoir (Swimming With Wild Cats) went into print March 1, 2007. That's serious inspiration. She teaches you that it's okay to be quirky, clumsy, and bad at things that you love doing.

Perhaps the dramatic difference in these reviews is due to "expectations".

I expected to feel better about giving up on becoming perfect, and I do.

I enjoyed the references to things being BETTER and more memorable, BECAUSE of their flaws.


I didn't expect to have so much FUN reading this book, but I smiled, laughed outloud and heard myself saying,
"Why not?" and "I WILL do that!"

Veronica points out she has chosen a career path that INVITES
rejection and she has not only lived to tell about it,she continues to invite it; not from a martyred perspective but as one accepting it.

I found this inspirational. Not everything challenging has to be avoided at all cost; just play through, I learned from her, there is good stuff everywhere.
Especially in the JOY of going for it, reached or not.

veronica's book is a delight. wonderful anecdotes. personal failures and triumphs alike. this is an incredibly gratifying read. i didn't want it to end. she is an inspiration. in order to gain perspective, we have lose things along the way. we have to fall apart. we have to be rejected. veronica shares her world with us and it helps to know you're not alone. insightful and brave. read the book!

This book had a nice flow, but got away from the main topic of the book and spun around to a long drawn out autobiography of her accomplisments. Veronica Chambers came across as a braggart. I would have appreicated the book more, if she created a character that shared similar experiences. If I had to choose between bying a cup of Starbucks coffee or buying this book, I'd choose the coffee.

I bought this book for vacation reading, expecting something light and humorous. Instead, I found vignettes from the author's life that offered no insight and never got a laugh out of me. Even though it was a quick read, I couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

I believe that the title of this book is misleading and the content does not live up to expectations at all. If I could, I would demand my money back.

What I expected in light of the title and other reviews was a light-hearted, witty and clever, perhaps sometimes self-deprecating and mostly amusing look at women's lifes and how we often stand in our own way with our sense of ueber-perfectionism.

What I got was a tedious read, and if I were in a nasty mood, I would even go as far as to say it was badly written. Veronica Chambers is trying too hard to be funny, and trust me, it doesn't work. Both, her style and the content did nothing to even remotely endear her to me and most of the time I was simply bored.

Maybe it is my fault and I had the wrong expectations, but even bearing that possibility in mind, it still doesn't deliver on the promise in the title.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as bad had she given it a title that reflected more of what the book really is: a diary of a woman who doesn't really have an awfult lot to say.

Which in itself wouldn't even be that bad, seeing as I have read numerous accounts of women who didn't really have much to say either - but they did so in such a charming, clever, witty and sometimes ironic way that made it possible to connect, or at least be entertained.

This book unfortunately does neither.