Customer Reviews

Life As a Loser

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

A singular and often stifilingly boring literary version of reality television, Leitch's book is the next phase in America's obsession with watching stupid people embarrass themselves. "Life as a Loser" is nothing more than an egotistical rant in a vain and somewhat pitiful attempt to gain popularity and sympathy through a lifetime of dissapointment. What separates this book from its electronically broadcasted brethren is one key component: good editing. Leitch's drawn out diatribes and abhorrent use of language leave the audience suffering from more than his self-effacing semi-biography. I have only one question: if it is obvious that Leitch has had such a horrible time living his own life, why would I want to waste my time reading about it?

Don't bother. This book is not funny and I agree with the other reviewer from Boston. Leitch was probably pleasuring himself while writing 90 percent of the pages. That's probably why the spelling was so bad. Don't waste your money or time. You could be pleasuring yourself instead of reading about Leitch do it. If I could have given it zero stars, I would have.

Don't bother. This book is not funny and I agree with the other reviewer from Boston. Leitch was probably pleasuring himself while writing 90 percent of the pages. That's probably why the spelling was so bad. Don't waste your money or time. You could be pleasuring yourself instead of reading about Leitch do it.

It's one thing to crystallize elements, occurances, and people from your real life into your art by reshaping, rethinking, or at least renaming them; it's another to just pick them up and drop them in a book. Although some bits were funny, this writing is too much of a string of journal entries. For truly hilarious, "real-life but not really" stories, read David Sedaris.

I was hoping that I'd like this book--after all, Tom Perrotta, author of 'Election" and the recent well-reviewed "Little Children", wrote the forward. But Leitch's prose and subject are simplistic and overly self-conscious. For really good guy-lit, I'd read Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, for example).

So, initially the book was given to be by the publisher at a holiday party and I lost it. I felt obligated to replace it and read it.

Life as a Loser appeals to the voyeur and the "unique individual" in all of us. In one sense it is like finding someone's journal and reading it- learning all about some of their inner workings. On the other hand, many of us twenty-somethings can identify with the trials and tribulations of Will. Though we may not all share the exact same story- the themes and the feelings are the same.

The book won't save any lives or answer any questions- but it just may bring a bit of comfort letting you know that life can be really screwed up and that you aren't the only one in the world who can't understand why "all this is happening to you."

Will Leitch's writing is honest, funny, lively, and engaging. The only thing I don't like is the book's sloppy copyediting (obvious grammatical errors, inconsistent smart/straight quotes, etc.), and the boring book design (there are other fonts out there besides Helvetica and Times Roman!). Given the high quality of the book's content, it deserved a better overall presentation.

Will has an amazing knack for describing details about people's personal lives in his columns, despite that few, if any of them, have given him permission to do so. This book is more of the same... a look into his life, at the peril of those who know him. "Life as a Loser" is more of a please-like-me-I-want-to-be-Dave-Eggers tome than it is a legitmate piece of literature. You'd be better off catching a local coffee-house poetry reading.

Will has an amazing knack for describing details about people's personal lives in his columns, despite that few, if any of them, have given him permission to do so. This book is more of the same... a look into his life, at the peril of those who know him. "Life as a Loser" is more of a please-like-me-I-want-to-be-Dave-Eggers tome than it is a legitmate piece of literature. You'd be better off catching a local coffee-house poetry reading.

Hello!!! Will Leitch is a true statesman. Everything he states is done so with remarkable glimmercity, tact, and wadeful rumination. Just stunning. As a former copywriter I know good words and Mr. Leitch's are better than most. If you put Will in a room with a bunch of gorillas, they'd hug him just like they did Sigourney Weaver. Yes, he's that good. This book makes the perfect gift for Martin Luther King Day and any other holiday that falls on a Monday. Buy 52 of them. PEACE!!!!!