Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded

Interesting to read as sort of a time capsule. Every time Scalzi goes into a rant against Bush, I just shake my head thinking, “Oh you sweet summer child, 2007-Scalzi.” I don't always agree with the content and sometimes he goes after very low-hanging fruit, but you know it's a collection of blog entries, and I'm sure I'm guilty of similar issues in my blog. I'm just not a well-known author so nobody is offering to collect my blog in a book and sell it. Worth the read if you enjoy Scalzi's style or really want a time capsule into that early 00's nostalgia.

Skip the essays about the elections. Too dated by now. Even Scalzi couldn't predict how vulgar and petty American politics would become in only a decade.

This is an excellent compilation of the author's best blog posts. That said, I think the blog is the better way to experience these - in small bits, rather than gorging on them. The author is generally quite snarky (again, fine in small doses! I love snark!) and a book's worth of snark can cause spiritual/mental indigestion.

This book is a collection of posts from his blog (called “Whatever”) from 1998-2008. It covers an interesting assortment of topics, from personal relationships and nerdy interests, to politics and world events. It is fascinating to read, especially since it spans the “growing up” years of my life. For me it was interesting to read about these events from an adult's perspective, when I had experienced most of them as a child or teen.

However, I have to say, if you are one to be easily offended, this probably isn't the book for you. John Scalzi has some strong opinions and he really isn't worried about who he offends in expressing them. Of course, being me, I rather enjoyed reading his somewhat snarky writing style. And, well, even when I didn't necessarily agree with what he was saying (though I actually did find myself agreeing with him for the most part), I still enjoyed reading his arguments and random musings. He arguments were at least logical and well reasoned, besides being fairly hilarious, and I appreciated that aspect of his writing when dealing with the more polarizing topics.

Since this is a collection of short writings, it was a good book to read when I didn't have a lot of time to devote to a long story. However, I found this book oddly compelling and read through it fairly quickly despite not having a lot of time to sit down with it. I really enjoyed John Scalzi's writing style, and I definitely want to read more of his books in the future. I don't know if I would qualify this book as a must-read, but at times it was rather thought provoking, especially for a lot of the events from my younger years, while other sections were simply fun diversions. I enjoyed the writing and the rather wide-ranging topics, so I thought it was well worth the time to read, and I would definitely recommend it.