One Person's Chicken Soup is Another Person's Borsht - LFOI

The “inspirational” genre is my least favorite, even behind horror or science fiction. I don’t buy it. I don’t read it. (Which is kind of ironic since the very first short story I ever sold was to an inspirational collection. However, I did not write the story to fit the genre; the publisher decided the story fit her book.) That puts me once again outside a huge hunk of mainstream America and seeming to some rabid readers to be a book snob. Which is why I would never join a Book Club. I would have to put a “Best Seller” down if it bored me to tears and then I would have to either skip the meeting or drink a whole bunch of wine.

Maybe it takes a lot to inspire me. Like I don’t smile at every cute puppy video. If I am depressed, down or disappointed reading about other peoples depression and how they overcame it with diet and exercise only to jump on a sail boat to go around the world is only going to make me imagine that boat sinking in a typhoon. Now THAT might make me smile. Very few people or their stories inspire or push me to new things. I need first hand knowledge. I need to know them. I mean really know what makes them tick.

There is perhaps one kind of book from the inspiration genre I have enjoyed and even found helpful. Those were recommended to me by my old writing coach. Whenever he would get tired of my whining “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.” He would recommend a book for me to read. Since he too was not exactly enamored with “Chicken Soup” books; I could always count on them being more of a kick in the butt type of book. I still have them and a couple I have read more than once. You see he is one of those people I described in the paragraph above.

So now you are getting to know me a bit better. I don’t follow the crowd, fashion or fads and my skin would crawl if I did. That does not mean that I look down upon people who do like all that is popular or “in”. However, it does mean that I will never accumulate 500 “friends” on Facebook. Which is okay by me since I only do it because I am forced to.

To wrap this up Kermit the Frog was right on when he said, “It’s not easy being green.”