Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It

Rating:
Summary: Well written, thought provoking....
Review: I never write reviews of books, but I came to forward this book as a "recommend" to a number of friends after having picked it up in London on a recent business trip. I was intrigued by the book recommendation "quotes" which included one from Steve Martin---one of my favorite all time "people" encompassing a variety of categories--as well as the title as some one who occasionally gets around to doing yoga. I quickly became "hooked". This book has a great many levels. It would be easy to write Dyer off as a "stoner" who needs to get a life in order to stop whining about traveling around the world to exotic places. But a good meaningful reading of this book provokes wonder at the talent of the writer, the ideas and emotions put forth, and the breadth of knowledge involved. His descriptions of the music festival in Detroit is "on target" and one of the best descriptions/discussions of my hometown that I have ever read. I am now going to find and buy more of this truly talented and thought provoking writers' books. For those looking to think as well as be entertained, I can think of no better book.

Rating:
Summary: Well written, thought provoking....
Review: I never write reviews of books, but I came to forward this book as a "recommend" to a number of friends after having picked it up in London on a recent business trip. I was intrigued by the book recommendation "quotes" which included one from Steve Martin---one of my favorite all time "people" encompassing a variety of categories--as well as the title as some one who occasionally gets around to doing yoga. I quickly became "hooked". This book has a great many levels. It would be easy to write Dyer off as a "stoner" who needs to get a life in order to stop whining about traveling around the world to exotic places. But a good meaningful reading of this book provokes wonder at the talent of the writer, the ideas and emotions put forth, and the breadth of knowledge involved. His descriptions of the music festival in Detroit is "on target" and one of the best descriptions/discussions of my hometown that I have ever read. I am now going to find and buy more of this truly talented and thought provoking writers' books. For those looking to think as well as be entertained, I can think of no better book.

Rating:
Summary: How can you tell a writer from a pretentious bore?
Review: I thought this book engagingly refreshing at first. The style was a little too casual but he did make me laugh in places. The first sign of trouble was when I ran across the phrase "How can you tell the dancer from the dance?" It was as though a dark cloud had just blocked the sun at the beach. Later, such half-baked philosphical cliches began to pullulate. The only hope was that this claptrap was meant as parady. But no, he is serious, depressingly so. As serious and vacuous as contemporary artists.
I have travelled in South-East asia and am interested in the travel literature of that area, but for all the insight this book provides into another culture, it might as well have been written in Kansas. For a good book about a young person's experience in China who was actually more interested in the place and the people than in himself, try Peter Hessler's River Town.

Rating:
Summary: FUNNIEST DAMNED BOOK I'VE EVER READ--and I've read a lot.
Review: I'd describe myself as a fairly jaded reader (I review for seven different newspapers--a fab but exhausting job) and any time I begin to take myself a bit too seriously I tuck into this for comic relief. I won't reprise what the other reviewers have said about its contents, but the most salient feature of Dyer's writing is the HUMOR. You'll laugh so hard you'll cry, even in the middle of a hipper-than-thou coffee shop. I can't recommend this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Exotic Travel Essays.
Review: If the existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a travel memoir, perhaps he would have written "Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It." Geoff Dyer's search for meaning and genuine happiness - a journey that takes him around the world - is loaded with laughs and numerous mediations expounding on pithy quotes by luminaries such as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the poet W.H. Auden.
He bungles through New Orleans, Paris, Rome, other exotic destinations and not so beautiful places like Detroit in a stoned Woody Allenesque manner. He beautifully captures the moment of a place and its scene in a clear voice. In Amsterdam he's caught in a downpour after ingesting mushrooms and goes to a nearby café to change. "In the cramped confines of the toilet I had trouble getting out of my wet trousers, which clung to my legs like a drowning man."
Despite excessive self-absorption at times, the book still works and on many different levels: travel, philosophy and comedy. The common thread throughout that binds the text and connects the reader is the steady stream of honest writing.


Rating:
Summary: who publishes this? Maybe I can publish my shopping lists
Review: If you can't say anything nice, write a review on Amazon, right?

I picked this book up when I was on a bout of reading travel journals. Can't blame me for this, the book WAS categorized as a travel journal in the book store. It was probably because the book store did not have enough books to create a "whinny 40 year old diary" section.

I'm about half way through the book but I'm afraid I'm going to have to just give up. I find it much more interesting to read people's diaries on livejournal.com - click on Random. You get the same whinning accounts of the daily life, only those are teenagers posting them - that's their excuse. And they don't waste paper by publishing their diaries.

The author of this book travels throughout the world, to some of the most beautiful countries, but he's too jadded or too self-centered to notice anything except his own behind. How much can you read about someone's behind?? He would have done better staying in his back yard, and maybe he wouldn't have had the gull to consider himself a writer.







Rating:
Summary: I can't be bothered with this book
Review: In Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, 40-something Geoff Dyer explains how his world travels have helped him--sometimes gracefully, sometimes not-so-gracefully-- grow up.
Through his loosely connected sketches of travel destinations,
girlfriends, and drug-addict acquaintances, he traces his steps from young-adulthood into adulthood. But the one question is: Do we really care? My answer is no. With intriguing memoir, the author lures us in, he makes us care. Geoff Dyer does not. While mildly amusing in the beginning, his drugs and his flings and even his feelings get old-- because of the fundamental problem with this book--he doesn't connect with his readers. He doesn't make us care about him or his life. Now don't get me wrong, this book is not terrible. But it's not fabulous either. It's okay.

I confess, I was attracted to Geoff Dyer's book mostly because of the title, and the light green cover, and the fact that it's categorized under Travel/ Memoir. And while it did have its comical and interesting parts, don't bother. With all the amazing literature out there, don't waste time with this one.

Rating:
Summary: I can't be bothered with this book
Review: In Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, 40-something Geoff Dyer explains how his world travels have helped him--sometimes gracefully, sometimes not-so-gracefully-- grow up.
Through his loosely connected sketches of travel destinations,
girlfriends, and drug-addict acquaintances, he traces his steps from young-adulthood into adulthood. But the one question is: Do we really care? My answer is no. With intriguing memoir, the author lures us in, he makes us care. Geoff Dyer does not. While mildly amusing in the beginning, his drugs and his flings and even his feelings get old-- because of the fundamental problem with this book--he doesn't connect with his readers. He doesn't make us care about him or his life. Now don't get me wrong, this book is not terrible. But it's not fabulous either. It's okay.

I confess, I was attracted to Geoff Dyer's book mostly because of the title, and the light green cover, and the fact that it's categorized under Travel/ Memoir. And while it did have its comical and interesting parts, don't bother. With all the amazing literature out there, don't waste time with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, But . . .
Review: It is hard to live up to a book as good as "Out of Sheer Rage" was. That "Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It" didn't, and that it ultimately left me a little disappointed, doesn't render it an unworthy read. The bits about the Burning Man festival, by themselves, are worth the price of admission.

Rating:
Summary: Let go of expectations and enjoy
Review: It's not Geoff Dyer's fault that a lot of people seem pick up this book and think they're going to get something else-a travel guide or a memoir or a philosophical treatise. Judging by the reviews, a lot of readers are uncomfortable with something that they can't really pin down. Dyer doesn't help these readers out by flitting around the globe and resolutely refusing to say anything meaningful about anything but his own state of mind. But once you let go of expectations, "Yoga" really starts to grow on you, adding up to a pleasant if transitory experience, kind of like an evening with an aging backpacker in a seedy hostel with a bottle of Thai whiskey. Dyer also charms as someone who is obviously staggeringly well-read, yet wears his knowledge lightly and seems to actually live with his favorites, instead of just name-drop. That must be a British thing, because it's rare to find American writers who can pull this off. (...)