The Book of Even More Awesome by Neil Pasricha

The Book of Even More Awesome presents a bunch of things that are, well, awesome.

I picked it up awhile ago at Costco. I heard/saw all of the hype on the internet about the first book, The Book of Awesome and while I was able to resist for awhile, I figured I should see what the fuss was about when the second book came out.

Maybe I'm missing something, but the book was just okay. I was really enjoying it at first, but it got old fast. Granted we are not all going to find awesomeness in the same things, but just maybe the author was trying to be all things to all people. Or maybe the book was written for young people. Or maybe it was written for adults, but I'm outside of the demographic.

Some of these "awesome" things seemed juvenile; others were way too specific to apply to many people; some encompassed both. For example, Rocking out on air instruments (page 231). I guess some people do this, but it didn't resonate with me. Another example: When your friends working in fast-food restaurants give you a little extra (page 100). I'm all for free stuff at the drive-thru (I've been there and it is indeed awesome), but I'm almost 50 years old and I don't have friends who work at fast food restaurants. Some of the items were so un-awesome to me that I didn't bother reading further and just skipped to the next page: Interspecies action-figure wars (page 332). Huh?

Some phrases in the book were in bold face text. I couldn't figure out what that was all about because it appeared to be totally random. It's not a big deal, but it was a bit distracting.

Having said all of that, there were a couple of items that I loved:

Coming back to your own bed after a long trip (page 3)

Finally getting that tiny piece of popcorn out of your teeth (page 10)

Seeing a license plate from home when you're somewhere really far away (page 71)

Getting through right away when you call a big company (page 49)

When you drive from a rough road onto a smooth one (page 303)

I don't really know if I'd recommend this book to others. It would probably depend on the person and how I felt that day.

For more information about this book, the first book, and other awesome things, please visit the 1000 Awesome Things website.

The Book of Even More Awesome by Neil Pasricha, The Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin) ©2011. ISBN 9780425245552(Trade paperback), 390p.