Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008
Ratings8
Average rating2.9
On September 13, 1998, John Scalzi sat down in front of his computer to write the first entry in his blog Whatever--and changed the history of the Internet as we know it today. What, you're not swallowing that one? Okay, fine: He started writing Whatever and amused about 15 people that first day. If that many. But he kept at it, for ten years and running. Now 40,000 people drop by on a daily basis to see what he's got to say. About what? Well, about whatever: Politics, writing, family, war, popular culture and cats (especially with bacon on them). Sometimes he's funny. Sometimes he's serious (mostly he's sarcastic). Sometimes people agree with him. Sometimes they send him hate mail, which he grades on originality and sends back. Along the way, Scalzi's become a best-selling, award-winning author, a father, and a geek celebrity. But no matter what, there's always another Whatever post to amuse and/or enrage his readers. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded collects some of the best and most popular Whatever entries from the first ten years of the blog – a decade of Whatever, presented in delightfully random form, just as it should be. * Winner of the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book * Introduction by Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton Old Man's War Series #1 Old Man’s War #2 The Ghost Brigades #3 The Last Colony #4 Zoe’s Tale #5 The Human Division #6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup” Other Tor Books The Android’s Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts Lock In The Collapsing Empire (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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2 primary booksWhatever
Whatever is a 2-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2008 with contributions by John Scalzi.
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This book is a collection of posts from his blog (called “Whatever”) from 1998-2008. It covers an interesting assortment of topics, from personal relationships and nerdy interests, to politics and world events. It is fascinating to read, especially since it spans the “growing up” years of my life. For me it was interesting to read about these events from an adult's perspective, when I had experienced most of them as a child or teen.
However, I have to say, if you are one to be easily offended, this probably isn't the book for you. John Scalzi has some strong opinions and he really isn't worried about who he offends in expressing them. Of course, being me, I rather enjoyed reading his somewhat snarky writing style. And, well, even when I didn't necessarily agree with what he was saying (though I actually did find myself agreeing with him for the most part), I still enjoyed reading his arguments and random musings. He arguments were at least logical and well reasoned, besides being fairly hilarious, and I appreciated that aspect of his writing when dealing with the more polarizing topics.
Since this is a collection of short writings, it was a good book to read when I didn't have a lot of time to devote to a long story. However, I found this book oddly compelling and read through it fairly quickly despite not having a lot of time to sit down with it. I really enjoyed John Scalzi's writing style, and I definitely want to read more of his books in the future. I don't know if I would qualify this book as a must-read, but at times it was rather thought provoking, especially for a lot of the events from my younger years, while other sections were simply fun diversions. I enjoyed the writing and the rather wide-ranging topics, so I thought it was well worth the time to read, and I would definitely recommend it.
This is an excellent compilation of the author's best blog posts. That said, I think the blog is the better way to experience these - in small bits, rather than gorging on them. The author is generally quite snarky (again, fine in small doses! I love snark!) and a book's worth of snark can cause spiritual/mental indigestion.
Interesting to read as sort of a time capsule. Every time Scalzi goes into a rant against Bush, I just shake my head thinking, “Oh you sweet summer child, 2007-Scalzi.” I don't always agree with the content and sometimes he goes after very low-hanging fruit, but you know it's a collection of blog entries, and I'm sure I'm guilty of similar issues in my blog. I'm just not a well-known author so nobody is offering to collect my blog in a book and sell it. Worth the read if you enjoy Scalzi's style or really want a time capsule into that early 00's nostalgia.
