Word: how-to
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Book that is least likely to attract a pass-along readership: Final Exit, the how-to suicide manual by Derek Humphry...
Book that is least likely to attract a pass-along readership: Final Exit, the how-to suicide manual by Derek Humphry...
DAVID OWEN's The Walls Around Us magically reconstructs the dry condescension of "How-to books" into tales of adventure, quests for knowledge, and lots of jokes (most on him). "House Restoration" may stir memories of Dad's growling out back at the water pipes, of Mom's repainting the dining room yet another sickening mauve, or of your finally washing the dishes, but for Owen it is a way to replay long-gone childhood in style...
Even with such poetry, Owen does manage to maintain the frame of a practical how-to. His goals for the book extend far beyond the pleasures of entertainment. A fan of zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which he read in college), Owen wants to "demystify technology" for all home owners. "There is a powerful feeling of tranquility that comes from knowing how one's house is put together," Owen writes. "My childhood would have been somewhat less anxiety-ridden had I realized...there was no way for pirates to crawl... from the laundry chute...
...Angeles Chapter of N.O.W. called Ellis's book "a how-to novel on the torture and dismemberment of women," as if such a manual would create new psychos. Richard E. Snyder, chairman of Simon & Schuster, quickly caved in to the feminists and canceled his company's publication of American Psycho in the name of "taste." Amanda Urban, Ellis's agent, characterized the cancellation as "a giant corporation [Paramount Communications, which owns Simon & Schuster] responding to prepublication controversy and strong-arming its publishing division into abandoning its own tradition of fearless publishing...