Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching [Paperback]

Anna David (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2010

Reality television is the ultimate guilty pleasure -- a nonstop parade of cast members and scenarios that make fictional ones seem downright dull. Increasingly absurd challenges, hair-yanking catfights, and hot tub makeouts dripping with yet-to-be-acknowledged regret are only part of its appeal.

In this collection of wry and moving essays, bestselling authors explore the programs we obsess over, cringe at, and occasionally feel inspired by. From a Real World casting call and American Idol tattoo to a look at the appeal of Big Brother, Survivor, The Real Housewives, and more, a vibrant mix of literary luminaries examine the form of entertainment that’s dominated our TV screens for more than a decade.

Entertaining and insightful, Reality Matters is a must-read for anyone who adores reality TV, wants to know what kind of an impact it’s having on our society, or simply wonders just how real any of it actually is.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Durable writing about reality television, is such a thing possible?...[Reality Matters] may answer that question. It contains considered essays on “Project Runway,” “Dog Whisperer,” “Survivor,” and “Jersey Shore”....[and] useful analysis of the fakery/reality issues inherent in television that purports to be, though rarely is, entirely true. ” (The New Yorker )

“Insightful.” (USA Today, Idol Chatter )

“Fun, funny, and surprising.” (Penthouse )

“Shockingly amusing and periodically poignant, Reality Matters gives college-educated reality show fans permission to smile about their devotion to America’s guiltiest lowbrow pleasure.” (LAist.com )

“If there’s anything more entertaining than experiencing the guilty pleasure of reality TV firsthand, it’s reading a bunch of brilliant people trying to rationalize their obsession with the genre.” (Flavorpill )

“A brilliant compilation.” (Starpulse )

About the Author

Anna David is the author of the novels Party Girl and Bought, and the editor of the anthology Reality Matters. She has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Redbook, Details, and many other publications. She has appeared on national television programs including Today, Hannity, and CNN’s Showbiz Tonight.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: It Books; 1 edition (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006176664X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061766640
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anna David is the author of the novels Party Girl (HarperCollins, 2007) and Bought (HarperCollins, 2009), and the editor of the anthology Reality Matters (HarperCollins, 2010); her memoir, Falling for Me, which covers her attempt to re-fashion her life around the recommendations Helen Gurley Brown made in 1962′s Sex and the Single Girl, will be released in October, 2011. She's appeared repeatedly on the Today Show, Hannity, Red Eye (Fox News), CNN's Showbiz Tonight, and various other programs on Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, CTV, MTV News, VH1 and E and was the sex, dating and relationship expert on G4's Attack of the Show for over three years.

A contributor to The Daily Beast, Details and Maxim, David is currently the Executive Editor of the addiction and recovery website The Fix and visits colleges across the country to talk about addiction. She's been on staff at Premiere and Parenting, a fulltime freelancer for People, a contracted reporter for Us Weekly and a sex columnist for Razor. Her celebrity cover stories, first-person essays, and reported pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Cosmo, Redbook, Self, Stuff, TV Guide, Movieline, Women's Health, Esquire UK, Teen Vogue, and Variety, among many other publications.

Party Girl, which has been translated into Italian and Russian, is about a reckless 20-something who's hired to write a column documenting her exploits just as she cleans up her act. The screen rights were purchased by Sony. Bought is a fictionalized version of an investigative piece David did for Details Magazine about prostitution in Hollywood. Reality Matters is an anthology of essays about reality television shows which features the work of James Frey, Toby Young, Neil Strauss, and Jerry Stahl, among others; the book has been selected as course materials for media studies and communications courses at universities across the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Few Cute Essays But Very Little Substance, November 13, 2011

By 

Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching (Paperback)

This book is a bunch of short riffs by snobby writers who are addicted to a reality television show--but instead of providing any insight or cultural commentary about the genre, most of the authors waste their short space (six to eight pages) to talk about their own mundane lives. The book ends up being a bunch of naval-gazing rants regarding how these writers' lives are so pathetic that they make themselves feel better by looking down at the stupid people on reality TV.

There are a couple of exceptions--the sections on American Idol and The Bachelor are well written, though way too short. The piece on Married By America makes a few good points. But most of the rest are a waste of space, including one on Jersey Shore that a grade school kid could have written and a fantasy pitch essay to Mark Burnett, which may have had a point but the writer was so inept they didn't seem to make it. Even "editor" Anna David's piece, which reveals a bit about her applying for Real World, doesn't provide enough information to make the piece much more than a short magazine article.

If you like both reality TV and snobby east coast literary elitists, then this may be the book for you to take along on a plane. It's easy to flip through and inoffensive. Probably the best part of the book is James Frey's foreword, in which he admits to being a reality TV addict and then ties the lies of television editing to the lies of memoir writing. Just wish the rest of the book would have been like that!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Superficiality of Reality TV Without the Entertainment, April 27, 2010

By 

T. McGovern (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching (Paperback)

Better writers have been dealing with reality tv for the past 10 years. See: Klosterman, Chuck and Gladwell, Malcolm. With that being said, I am certainly not averse to much of Anna David's work. But, despite a few decent pieces in this anthology, most retain only superficial insight and lack the depth of other writers and critics I've read.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!, April 16, 2010

By 

M. J Partipilo "Chi_Mike" (Chicago, Il) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Reality Matters: 19 Writers Come Clean About the Shows We Can't Stop Watching (Paperback)

I laughed, I learned and I got a lot of insight into why people get hooked on reality TV. The collection of essays in Reality Matters are honest and entertaining. I laughed out loud several times and couldn't get to the next essay fast enough. I flew through the book and found myself wanting more. If you like reality TV, this is the book for you.