Oh, the Humanity!: A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert [Paperback]

Jason Roeder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 2007

Are you uncomfortable engaging in conversation? Do you have trouble making friends? Have you longed to have your deeply rooted social anxiety eliminated by a slender paperback you can read cover-to-cover over several lunch breaks? If your answer is yes - or if you're looking for the perfect birthday gift for that special nervous someone - the book you've been waiting for has arrived.

Oh, the Humanity! will see you through all your interpersonal struggles:

• "How can I boost my self-confidence? I've already tried crying all day and avoiding my horrible reflection in the mirror. Is there something else that might work?"
• "I'm not very good at small talk. How can I get the least out of every word I use?"
• "What exactly is 'body language'? My arrest record suggests I need some clarification."
• "My hobbies include scrapbooking, swimming with dolphins, and taking chain letters seriously. How can I find people with similar interests?"
• "I recently decided to become a hipster schmuck. How can I rid myself of current friends incompatible with my new, ill-advised persona?"
• Plus, somewhat more!

Life is a precious gift that could be hit by a bus tomorrow. Isn't it time you lived it the way some total stranger who wrote a book thinks you should? Oh, the Humanity! is all you'll ever need to jump-start your social skills!

You'll also need a promotional Frisbee if we get some of those made.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jason Roeder had contributed humor pieces to The New Yorker, Salon, Cracked magazine, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency as well as the books Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category and The Future Dictionary of America. His fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Cimarron Review, Sycamore Review, and Hayden's Ferry Review, which nominated him for a 2006 Pushcart Prize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Tow Books (October 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582975116
• ISBN-13: 978-1582975115
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,516,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jason Roeder was born in New York but spent most of his childhood in South Florida. He studied psychology but abandoned the field when he realized he didn't have the tact for clinical work or the rudimentary algebra skills for research. He moved onto journalism and recently left an editorial job at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Yes, he's unemployed. Stop bugging him about that. He's looking, okay?

Jason's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Salon.com, McSweeney's, Radar magazine, and elsewhere. His humor book, "Oh, the Humanity! A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for Feeble Young Introvert," is available, you know, wherever books tend to congregate. He recently moved to New York because he's convinced that city is a vast untapped market for a writer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious satire of patronizing self-help manuals, September 25, 2007

By 

scott "Scott Francis" (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oh, the Humanity!: A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert (Paperback)

This book satrizes patronizing manuals on interpersonal skills, and pokes fun at the inhibitions and hang-ups those books target in the first place. If you're an introvert, then you know that things like making small talk, correct body language, and nervous chatter are problems. Problems that usually lead to hilariously awkward situations worthy of a television sit-com. But when you get down to it, isn't that just life? And you need a self-help book to tell you that? My advice is abandon the self-help section... for some real perspective read OH THE HUMANITY!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Relaxing, October 10, 2007

By 

Kathryn (Asheville, New Caledonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oh, the Humanity!: A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert (Paperback)

Forget social anxiety--if you have any kind of anxiety (claustrophobia, xenophobia, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia) this book actually achieves what it purports to satirize. Within moments of absorbing Roeder's smart, subtle, self-reflexive wit, you've forgotten your fear of sleep or the way styrofoam sounds when it squeaks. Suddenly, you're above the fray, streamlining through imaginative pages like a dolphin at an NRA meeting [see figure 3.2]. Roeder's book is entertaining, unique, and oddly effective. A must-read for the ineptitudes of Generation Me.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mighty tasty humor, November 19, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oh, the Humanity!: A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert (Paperback)

Reviewed by Connie Anderson

Okay, truth first. It's been a LONG time since I was a young introvert, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Jason Roeder's effort at telling his story.

The book is filled with lots of tongue-in-cheek (at least I hope so), quirky, edgy, smart-alecky advice.

This book is divided into three parts.

Part I: Essential Qualities You Lack looks at confidence, humor, curiosity and empathy.

Confident people have overcome their fear-or come to terms with it, or do things in spite of it. Drinking for confidence (never drink and drive-unless of course the Red Bull and vodka totally cancel each other out, pg. 13).

Part II: Conversations for People Who'd Rather Be Home Fondling Their Record Collection, Knitting Berets for Pets They May or May Not Actually Have, or Just Sitting in a Dark Room, Dreaming of a Darker Room.

This chapter title, longer than some books, covers small talk/chit chat, working with difficult people and difficult topics, nonverbal communication, like body language, and how to deal with people from different cultures.

Humor can win people over, if you're funny. If not, ouch--unless you learn to laugh at yourself. It's important to "know your audience."

Nonverbal communications--gestures that include smiling, eye contact, nodding, posture, physical contact like shaking hands, touching, hugs and kisses. The author introduces you to the unique ways men and women approach each of these!

Part III: Making Friends that Last a Lifetime (Or until they just kind of drift); Friends, who is a friend? and where will I find my friend and will you be my friend.

This talks about FWB (friends with benefits), acquaintances and pals. His "interview with a Pal) Pg. 130 is fun-but also true.

Jason Roeder's humor has been published in many magazines, including Writer's Digest where he wrote a humorous article about how to get out of a book club in a 2007 issue.

Armchair Interviews says: Humor for the young that can be enjoyed by the not-as-young.