Book Type: Comedy/Memoir
Summary: Mindy Kaling is a writer known for her work on the U.S. version of The Office. This book charts her development from childhood to adulthood on her way to being a comedy writer and includes various anecdotes about her snubbing her friends, then being snubbed by her friends (hence the book’s title), and her “break” after college, when a play she and her roommate co-wrote and co-starred in, made it big.
Lessons:
- The first thing I took away from this book is that I’m so excited there’s another person out there who judges the “I’m-not-good-with-names” people as much as I do. Mindy (yes, we’re on a first name basis) says in her book “No one is bad with names. That is not a real thing. Not knowing people’s names isn’t a neurological condition; it’s a choice. You choose not to make learning people’s names a priority. It’s like saying, ‘Hey, a disclaimer about me: I’m rude.’” She goes on to be funny and not sound quite so judge-y. I think I’ll leave it here though, I’m judge-y like that.
- Her book inspired me to think that if I put myself to work on writing consistently, my writing will improve and may mean something to people, like hers has. And when I say “mean something to people,” I’m mainly talking about making you want to recount scenes from my blog with your friends for your entire lunch the next day, like you would an episode of The Office. Maybe that’s a stretch at this point, but I’ve got to have goals.
- Lastly, I realized that if the awkward androgynous-looking brown girl on the back cover of this book can beat the odds and be successful, I really have no excuse not to try. Let’s be honest, I’m a white girl from the suburbs, the world was made for me to take advantage of it without really having to prove myself. (Too far?)
You’re right, she was destined to be famous.
A final review/recommendation:
I didn’t crap my pants laughing at Mindy Kaling’s book (like I tend to with David Sedaris’ books; it gets messy), but it was definitely amusing and I lawled (Mom, that’s LOL-ed) a few times. I recommend reading it, and she even tells you how long it should take: “This book will take you two days to read. Did you even see the cover? It’s mostly pink. If you’re reading this book every night for months, something is not right.” (Probably you’re illiterate or you’re too enamored by Ms. Kaling and should really stop “savoring” every moment.)
Photo credits:
Book cover: http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/110321/kaling_211.jpg
Androgynous Kids and Puppets: photo of the back cover of my copy of the book
I really enjoyed this book as well (and I said, “Thank you” aloud when she made her point about being bad at names).
Have you read Bossy Pants yet? I’ve been meaning to get to it…
Hey. If visual vs auditory learning is a real thing, then difficulty with names is legit too. Stop judging me! I agree that much of the time when someone is introduced, I’m thinking so hard about what I should say next that I don’t dwell on the name long enough to put it into memory, but things completely out of context and without a visual element are just hard, too.
Some people say they’re “face” people or “name” people… but I don’t think yo can be a name person without being a face person. I’m not even a face person, so I have no hope with names. I once made 5 minutes of small talk with a friend stranger at the campus laundromat before she had to tell me that we’d met before. Ouch. But then I remembered that she was from Ohio, just there for the semester, studying psychology, etc…. I didn’t forget meeting her, I just never memorized her face.
I’ve tried to start asking people how they spell their name, and that helps some.
And seconds on the messiness of David Sedaris. Heard him give a talk and tell a story about the lengths people would go to not have their poop make a sound in the toilet. Probably good I’d already BMed that day.
I wholeheartedly give you a reprieve for not remembering someone from a chance encounter; the “bad-with-names” type people that irritate me the most are ones like this guy: I approached a table last week at the pub and saw the one guy was wearing a sweatshirt of my adorable alma mater, and I said “Hey, Justin, glad to see you’re reppin’ our school. How’ve you been?” And he had no idea who I was. We met the very first day of orientation and stood in line together for like a half hour introducing ourselves. Then we went to school together for 4 years. At a tiny school. And if that doesn’t say it all, the fact that my phone number was still saved in his phone should say the rest. No way, bro. I rest my case. And I hope he never reads this. (Which he probably never will.)