| Title | : | An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1416552197 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781416552192 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 295 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2007 |
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems Reviews
-
I have been a huge fan of Glenn Beck's radio show ever since he became syndicated back in 2002. If you actually take the time to LISTEN to his radio show for an extended period of time you realize that he is in a constant state of analyzing his choices, his philosophies and his political alignments. He is not, despite what his detractors think, a mindless republican stooge... or even a mindless CONSERVATIVE stooge. He's just a regular guy who has made it big but who stays close to his values and never EVER lets anyone in politics or the media tell him what to think. And he is, quite simply, a radar detector for hypocrisy and bullsh***, which is what I think I love about his show the most.
(EDIT: I wrote this review in 2008, literally months before ole Glenn went from being a very cool, if a bit eccentric, personality with genuinely provocative insights, to becoming a complete and raving lunatic. It's almost not possible for people now to appreciate how awesome he used to be.)
That being said, every time Glenn tries to branch out into a different medium, it simply reaffirms to me that RADIO is where he truly belongs. His first book was simplistic drivel. His TV show is, I find, pretty much unwatchable. I haven't read his magazine but I imagine it's equally bad. And "An Inconvenient Book" pretty much continues that trend.
The book isn't exactly HORRIBLE. In fact it does raise some interesting points about the major issues that are affecting us today. True to form, Beck comes at these issues (Global Warming, Terrorism, Political Correctness, Illegal Immigration) from a questioning standpoint, pointing out the inconsistancies in logic that a lot of politicians and special interest groups seem to wallow in. He tries to infuse all his arguments with a heavy dose of wit, sarcasm and self-depreciating humor, which never really comes off as all that funny. He also tries to break up the heavier chapters with chapters that deal with such innocuous topics as how to rent a movie with a spouse and how to deal with your daughter's first boyfriend. Again, it's obvious that these chapters were intended to be comic relief... I tended to skim or skip them altogether since they weren't really all that funny.
So do I recommend this book? Actually yes. If you can find it at the library, pick it up for a quick read. Whether you are rightly or leftly slanted Beck DOES make some good points and does so by avoiding the cliche'd arguments that each side tends to fall back on. You may or may not agree with everything he says, but I find Beck, whether you agree with him or not, does present the issues in a way that at least makes you think. His prose ain't Howard Zinn, but it's mildly interesting nonetheless. Still, I stand by my original statement which is to say that if you REALLY want to see what Glenn is REALLY about, you should spend a couple weeks listening to his radio show. -
Wow. If you have ever had a desire to be simultaniously entertained, horrified, and informed this is the book for you. Glenn Beck offers his opinion on everything from global warming to illigal immigration, marriage and dateing, minimum wage, child molesters and dozens of other topics.
It really got me thinking about a lot of things and because he is an entertainer as well as a comentator he does an excellent job at taking some topics that would be rather dry and making them fun. I loved the quotes from differnt people, and the ADD moments. I love his sense of humor, I laughed out loud a few times. But he also presents some cold hard facts that inspite of his levity really can be disturbing.
Glenn is an honest man asking honest questions, about a lot of things that are good for the rest of us know about. Whether or not you agree with him. The issues he raises shouldnt be ignored. -
I'm a Glenn Beck fan, so I enjoyed this book, though not as much as his other (The Real America), which I really recommend. The book is a lot like his show with side notes, humor, and random thoughts. It is an easy read, as it is broken up in many sections, and looks like a junior high school textbook with all sorts of charts, and graphics. He is a funny guy with some good ideas (and some crazy ones, that just might work).
-
Oh, you were really surprised when you came across this book review, weren't you? Yeah, I'm a big Glenn Beck fan. Proof of just how nuts I am about Glenn Beck: I wrote a Perl script to convert the live streams on the Glenn Beck Insider site (which include bumper music and other types of material not fit for the "podcast" MP3s) into MP3 or Ogg files I can listen to when I want. Yeah. I'm a fan... a geeky fan.
Okay, so about this book... It is very, very good. In my opinion, this is how all conservative pundits and talk radio jocks should write their books. While a significant chunk of the book is about hot political issues like illegal immigration and global warming, there are chapters about less political topics... like going to the video store or tipping service staff. It's a pretty well-rounded capture of what goes on in the mind of the third-most listened-to talk radio host in all of America.
The layout of the book is also impressive: Every page is printed in 4-color process and the text is accompanied by charts, graphs, and humorous drawings/pictures that go along with the topic at hand. The designers also gave each page a seemingly unique watermark, or background, that gives it a well-handled, worn look- like maybe you've spilled a cup of coffee, or in the case of Glenn, a can of Coke Zero, on it, by accident.
From my perspective, as a rabid fan of Glenn's, I found the book a bit lacking in detail. That is, aside from the packaging of the book itself, there really wasn't much new here for me, content-wise, that I hadn't already read on Glenn's site, heard on his radio program, seen on his television program, or experienced myself at one of his stage shows. But... hey... I'm the exception here. If you've had some exposure to Glenn Beck or none at all, this book is an excellent way to jump in and find out what he's about.
Want to buy the book? Head over to Amazon and get it. It may be hard to find at your smaller local bookstore as it has been one of the top New York Times bestsellers since its release in November of 2007. -
A friend mentioned that she thought this book was really quite funny, but I had a very hard time with it.
For someone who professes to land in the middle of a lot of issues, I didn't see that. Perhaps the "humor" comes across better in a radio show than in a book. I must admit I've never listened to him.
I agree with other readers who felt that the better parts of the book were where he stopped trying to be funny and just expressed his views.
The other thing that bothered me was the joking that those who don't hold his views are unintelligent and conspiring to bring down the United States, and I'm not talking about his views on terrorists.
I was unimpressed. -
If you have a sense of humor, don’t take yourself too seriously, and can take off the kaleidoscope glasses of contemporary liberal thought long enough to take an honest look at the world, you have to love Glenn Beck. Glenn is a funny guy, a smart guy, and sometimes a scary guy. Glenn frequently, self-depreciatingly, refers to himself as a rodeo clown. If you know what the rodeo clowns are really doing down there in the arena you may agree that this reference is actually a pretty accurate allegory for what Glenn does. A rodeo Clown is more remarkable than most know. He dresses up like a fool and goes out to taunt terrifying creatures of volatile ferocity, with horn and hooves like iron, dangerous animals which can run forty miles per hour, and weigh more than ten times what the clown does. He routinely puts himself in peril in order to protect the riders once they hit the ground. However, because he looks and acts, well, like a clown, and makes us laugh, we may not appreciate just how important what he does really is.
That said, I still have given An Inconvenient Book an over-all rating of three stars. On the whole it was informative and entertaining. As Glenn says “…the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment...” There were several chapters that were STRONG five star efforts; Global Warming, The Income Gap, Education, Media Bias, Political Correctness, to name a few. Unfortunately, there were other chapters that just seemed irrelevant, inconsequential, and out of place, garnering two star ratings at best; Body Image, Blind Dating, Movie Rentals, How to Remember Names. I guess the intent was comedy, but it seemed like such a waste given the other significant topics he articulately, and humorously, addressed throughout the balance of the book. It’s still a good read, and contains a wealth of important information, but you can comfortably skip the two star chapters, study the fives, and get on to your next book. -
This book was slightly amusing, and while some of the "world's biggest problems" that it covered are real problems, some of them really are not problems at all, but just something to fill up the pages.
I think that Glenn Beck is your average conservative windbag that wants to get heard. His tactic for getting heard is by spouting off crazy ideas and shocking you. He says in one chapter that people use statistics to lie to you all the time and that you can't trust statistics, yet he does the very same thing.
While the content matter is mostly garbage, it is a somewhat amusing read, thus the two stars instead of one. -
WARNING: If you are a liberal whose sensitivities are easily upset, you may be offended by this book. This is not politically correct. However, Glenn's highly slanted, sometimes abrasive observations more often than not fit with my own. I think that much of the material is presented in a humorous way; Al Gore probably would not. It's also chock full of warnings about the dangerous path on which our nation is heading.
-
Glenn Beck is a funny guy with good common sense and realistic viewpoints on the world's "problems." Funny as heck in certain places and serious in others, it's a good read.
-
This is part of an ongoing project to challenge my own views.
You have to get the audiobook. The sarcasm and sighs and shouting just add to the experience.
Here are my highlights. Feel free to avoid reading the book for it's insights on global warming..
Scientists call people nasty names
Scientists are boring and that's why they don't have girl friends
Things a little warmer where I live would be nice
Climate simulations? We ran Madden 08 twenty times and it only once put the two right teams in the super bowl. That game had 7milliondollars invested in it.
Save the polar bears? They would kill me!
Scary global cooling stories in newspapers (not academic papers which even when cooling papers where being put out there where more saying warming)
His body image section was not bad.
I got a couple of laughs from the blind date segment but his joke of an ideal where men bring bank histories and the women bring doctors notes saying "their lady parts have always been lady parts" and that they are not crazy just turned me off (geddit).
But is this all so daring? Child molesters are disgusting? Nothing new there.
Siblings earn different amounts so it's not the system which causes income inequality it is different choices and skill levels. Married people do better, as do their kids, so poverty is solvable. Also believe in yourself. Also try living in China. Because other nations are worse we aint bad.
Choosing a movie is 15 minutes of the kinds of movies that don't get his wife in the mood.
The Media Bias section was just him bitching about his own statements being taken out of context.
Minimum wage section is just a mess of statistics which suits the point he is making: statistics can be manipulated.
His polls chapter was surprisingly right. Hallelujah some of that common sense he talks about having.
The final chapter went into a conspiracy for a northamericangovernment. Corporate interests trying to remove legislation. I thought he would be for deregulation. He is right about a need for transparency. He kept putting on a tinfoiler nerd voice mocking himself. No idea what he was going for with that. -
It's a pretty good book. He offers great insights into some of the media driven liberal ideologies that seem to be crammed down our throat everywhere you look today (such as Global Warming, Minimum Wage, Illegal Immigration). But he also has some great chapters on personal lives, dating, marriage, parenting, etc. And his voice is spot on; if you've ever seen his show or heard him talk, you can hear him saying the words as you read them.
But I would recommend breaking up the book and not trying to read it all at once. Because there is no story, it can get pretty monotonous if you try to read the entire book like you would read a novel. Perhaps it's a bathroom book, stick it in there and read it whenever you go do your business. -
I'm not much of a Glenn Beck watcher/listener, but my husband is. I got this book for him for Christmas and he read it in an impressively short period of time. (He doesn't really like reading.) He really wanted me to read it, too. I must admit that most of what Glenn Beck conveyed in this book made a LOT of sense. It wasn't an incredibly fast read for me because the book's layout is more like a text book. But his "A.D.D. Moments" are quite entertaining. This book informs as well as entertains. Glenn is a pretty funny guy. Good book.
-
I listen to Glenn Beck's radio show every chance I get and was really looking forward to his book. I thought some of the chapters were excellent and some where trying to be funny but weren't that funny. Glenn is very funny in his show, but it didn't quite transfer over to me.
The chapters that I really liked left out the zany humor and laid out the facts.
I would advise everyone to read this book; just read fast on the silly stuff and get right to the meat of the matter. -
I'm a huge fan of Glenn Beck. I think he's spot on most of the time. He doesn't play a lot of political games, he's out of the mainstream, and since Jon Stewart doesn't like him - that gives me reason to. As far as this book goes, I get the point of trying to insert humor into serious situations, but too much is just plain too much. I would definately recommend certain chapters, but as a whole the book is kind of like eating a spoonful of mayonaise.
-
Glenn Beck is my best friend, who never calls. I love his opinion on politics and I am usually with him 100% of the time. He is amazing. He is one of my heros.
I finished this book for a second time. On our long drive to Illinois, I read it to my husband. It is a great read. Each chapter is a different topic. -
This book was hilarious. I've been listening to Glenn for over 6 years and couldn't wait to read this. It was hilarious, educational, true, and did I mention pee your pants hilarious. He actually proved with charts and graphs that global warming is not caused by Carbon emissions, but by people giving their kids "Ca" names, like Caleb, Cameron, Caden, Calista, etc. Would recommend to anyone.
-
I give this four stars in the area of political books, totally separate from fiction and non-fiction. :) Glenn Beck calls 'em how he sees 'em, and that's what I like about this one. I especially liked his views on pornography. Thanks for the reminder, Jen. I forgot I read this one!
Good, quick read ... I highly recommend it.
(Even if you're a Democrat, Donna ... ha.) -
I was pleasantly surprised. Going in, I thought this book was going to be a partisan hatchet job against Al Gore. While Beck takes on Gore's film in the first chapter, he moves on to other topics. This wasn't partisan as he takes on Democrats and Republicans alike. Both left and right wings are in his crosshairs. He bogs down a bit in the final chapter but, overall, it was a satisfying read. Very self depricating throughout. One criticism is his asides among the pages get a bit distracting from the overall narrative.
Again, readers should have an open mind and give the book a chance. It won't necessarily change one's vote, but it might expand their way of looking at the world. And that was perhaps his goal all along. -
An Inconvenient Sense of Humor
Written by Mandi Scott Chestler on October 6th, 2009
Book Rating: 3/5
Unless you are a Glenn Beck fan, this audio-book has marginal appeal. While Mr. Beck's enthusiasm for his country seems sincere and honest, unfortunately his aptitude for humor is inconveniently average. He undercuts some of his best points with goofy highschoolish attempts at jokes and silly sarcasm. Too many cheap shots at environmentalists undercut his better, more sensible arguments for protecting our borders, cutting our government spending/defecit, and taking more seriously the radical Islamic extremist threat to American democracy. -
Overall I though the book was better then I had expected. It does get kind of preachy at times and some parts are somewhat overly argumentative particularly on topics in which most people would not disagree with his point of view. But the majority of the book is kind of light hearted common sense observations of the world and the political landscape.
-
Chock full of your trite conservative talking points. A boring book altogether, although there were some humor and a couple of interesting chapters. I don't even know why I read this book, I think I found it at my parent's house? Maybe a garage sale? Wouldn't recommend.
