I'm giving this a one star because most of the poems were boring and pointless
347800
The package came in on time and the book wasn't damaged. I'm giving this a one star because most of the poems were boring and pointless.
1102369
if your sense of humor doesn't include writing "interesting" facts about cane toads and handing it out to a guy in your school, then don't enen THINK about buying this book.

The "murder" of bindy macenzie isn't even really a murder, she just "thinks" it is.  Bindy's character is annoying, un funny, and boring...need i say more?  The book isn't even funny, it's just page after page, after page of blah blah blah NONSENSE with flowery language.  Not flowery language like that of Edgar Allan Poe's, but boring, dull, business formal, primm and propper language.  I was asleep after the first ten pages.

however...this book has some great uses if you don't want to read it:
1. Firewood
2. Origami paper/paper airplane material
3. Cup coaster
4. Wedge for a door
5. Weapon for self defense if you're ever being robbed
6. bird cage lining (that is if you don't want your birds reading it and being bored to death!)

But if you don't want to spend $9.99 plus shipping and handling for those kinds of things, than PLEASE DON'T EVEN BOTHER WITH THIS "BOOK."
3053408
The only appeal of this book is that the unique paper the pages are made of will burn really well in the pyre. This book is a self-indulgent collection of unconnected pieces with no apparent purpose.  Thus the title of my review. Who Cares!  I would suggest anyone considering this book look at some of this acclaimed writers other works. I wish I could point to one or two of the short pieces in collection and comment positively.  I cannot.
2965561
This is one of the most boring collection of short stories I have ever read.  I was dying to get to the end.  After this, James Joyce had a choice of either giving up writing or writing a masterpiece.  I am glad he did the latter.
3438117
The Basques by Roger Collins was unfortunately one of the most painfully boring works I have ever read in the eight years since I have been writing and publishing book reviews. If a brief section on the Basque language could put me to sleep--me, a linguaphile with a passion for minority European languages--then you know this book must have been bad. Collins based this history of the Basque people from the first twelve centuries of the modern era, so issues such as the suppression of the Basque language under Franco and the rise of Basque nationalism were not discussed. I was looking forward to the sections on anthropology, the Proto-Basques and tribal origins but...no. I was so thoroughly numbed over the twelve days I struggled through this book that I could not wait to get to the end of it. I did enjoy the research Collins did in locating centuries-old documents like charters that made reference to tangential points in Basque history. These were documents from before the second millennium, even. But then I was more interested in the dates when they were produced than by what was written on them. A very boring book gives me no inspiration to go over it all again to compose a review. I am sorry--I hated this book. There are so many others that do a better job about Basque history, but only Collins has spent as much detail in exploring the Basques' first millennium. Even so, it was not a pleasure to read.

One sign that I did not like a book is that I do not quote from it. Nothing memorable yields nothing to note. Yet I did record two short passages that struck my interest by their subdued drama. The subject of the origins of the Basque people sometimes gives rise to hyperbole, even in academic texts. I appreciated that Collins never soared off the ground with his analyses, and, quite often, had the confidence to report that this or that aspect of the Basque origins was left to the unknown. One of the first such examples was this:

"The evidence just does not exist, be it anthropological, archaeological or linguistic, on which it would be possible to state where the Basques came from, and when and how they established themselves in the western Pyrenees."

The Basques had no sense of their unique and ancient place in European history and never used this knowledge to strive for independence or more autonomy. The idea of a Basque sense of identity didn't develop until the age of exploration:

"This lack of an overriding sense of a Basque identity and a low level of regard for the language in sophisticated circles were first seriously challenged in the later sixteenth century, probably as an indirect consequence of the period of discoveries in the Indies and the Americas. The interest thus aroused in the Indian peoples whom the Spanish explorers and settlers encountered created something of an ethnological revolution."
2307090
Nothing too great about this collection the usual themes these Instawriters write to appeal to their mass less literary discerning audience. This publisher seems to recruit whoever is popular on social media and rushes a product out for consumption which is fine if you like poetry like this a collection of paragraph like laments on stars, love, heartbreak, etc.  All these books are the same at least this one has some words on the page unlike some of the other ones that are mostly blank space  I guess so you can doodle once you finish reading the entire book in ten minutes.  I would suggest something like Dan Fante or e.e. cummings if you want to read some good poetry.
4437899
I'm considering tearing the pages out of this book and using them as toilet paper. Maybe part of that is due to the fact that this novel is written on 666 pages averaging less that 100 words a page, and is a complete waste of trees. It could have easily been 100 pages long. But no. It's written in "verse", and the only thing that would let you know that, is the fact that it's divided into stanzas. I can't think of any other elements of poetry these "poems" contain.

The characters almost have no personality outside of their mental disorders. They're regarded as "intelligent", "witty", and even "completely amazing", but you'd only know that because the other characters tell you that. The author that wrote this book is obviously not a teenager and hasn't been a teenager for a very long time, because the way some of the characters talk, especially about sex, is just awkward.

I've never been depressed before. But I've been around people diagnosed depressed. They don't talk or eat or function normally. However, the characters in this book aren't the least bit phased by their "depression".

The end is predictable and boring. Some characters reveal HUGE secrets that, as far as I can tell, had absolutely no place in the story, other than to make you feel bad for the characters. Save your time and a few trees, and don't read this book.
3797351
I made it exactly one-third of the way and gave up.  I thought it was a novel, but I guess you would call it a collection of short stories made entirely of extremely long run-on sentences.  most of the subject matter had to do with art restoration.  yawn.
3762209
Jokes in this book were pretty lame and boring. And I've heard most of the jokes in this book before.
398916
I expected a book with short horror- or mystery-stories and I was looking forward to read this book but I get a book with mainly - no... only - boring short stories. No mystery, no horror, no thrill. It's a compilation of short stories from different authors - previously or first published. The only two positive things to say about this book: the cheap price and the shortness of the stories.

It's a compilation of short stories about the ancient egyptian god Seth, a blood-thirty Santa Clause, a man who wants to get rid of his murdered wife, ... This is not the time to make a summery of all the stories. But there is one point that every single story has in commen with all the other stories. At the end there is a little twist, so nothing is what it seems to be.

But none of the authors is able to make more out of their good ideas. Sure, all stories have a good or average beginning but the twist, the unexpected end, just expands in the last paragraph and then the story ends... disappointing and after the third or fourth short story only boring. You will not find out why Santa is blood-thirty, why the husband murdered his wife or a deadly curse lay on the daughter of his neigbors. But these have to be the main contents to understand the stories. All the ends are to short, so you are hardly able to imagine what creepy acts could follow, even if the authors don't write about them.

I think this is a compilation of stories you could read, if you want to know how you should not write a story. I give two stars for some of the good ideas in the stories.

P.S. 23.05.2012:
All stories are from the same author; I don't know why I wrote they are from different authors. Anyway, that will not make this book any better.
4901641
There is a laziness to these poems, a fake rigor -- short sparse lines that imply lyric tension, but feel like no more than cocktail coaster jottings.  Lots of vague pseudo-connections, hocus-pocus, imagistic smoke and mirrors -- and to what end?  There is little here that speaks to an intelligent, receptive poetry audience.  It is all word games, which we are told to believe contain some higher purpose and deeper meaning, indiscernible but ever-present.  How the hocum that the academy has labeled "language poetry" has taken root would be hilarious if it were not such a destructive force in American literature.  It undermines the appreciation of clear, powerful multi-textured poetry that is more depth than surface.  Experimental, surreal, futurist poetry can be quite wonderful.  The best of its practitioners, from Stevens to Eluard to Vallejo, spoke directly to their audience, however deflective or circular their language might initially appear.  Its carefully wrought circularity leads the reader, or listener, into a labyrinth resonant with music of all sorts.  Ms. Armantrout's verse, and its ilk, speaks to itself, unintelligibly and pretentiously.  Read it aloud to another person and ask him or her where it has taken them, aesthetically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Pairing odd combinations of images -- many of them not even fresh or original -- is not poetry, but gamesmanship, verbal solitaire.  Poetry is not about scratching your head, but feeding it.  Try reading some real lyric and narrative poetry: Merwin, Strand, Hecht, Simic, Rich, Justice, Ai, Christopher, Hirsch, Spires, Levine -- there's a world of fabulous American poetry out there, rich with texture, music, and yes, meaning.
1391726
The 50th anniversary splash surrounding this "classic" finally drove me to try it and I must admit, I really don't know why I bothered.  I was 5 years old when this book was written so I was obviously way more a part of the hippie generation than the beat generation.  Nevertheless, the story is boring (it's been a long time since it took such a long time to finish a novel)and repetitive, the writing is crappy, the insights are minimal at best, and there is not a single character that mattered to me.  I guess I'm glad I finally read it but what a tremendous disappointment.
671494
This is an undistinguished selection of songs sung blandly.
3084313
I could only read about one quarter of this book, when I just gave up.  The characterizations were so flat and the plot so uninteresting that I decided not to waste my time.  The writing was okay, and I think the author might do better next time.
2176362
I was very disappointed with this book.
I downloaded "Ish" as a free Kindle offering in May based on the Amazon Book Description and Editorial Reviews which said it was very funny.

It consists of 170 pages, each containing a one-liner statement. I found them all to be uninspiring, unfunny, banal, boring, pointless and insignificant. A huge contrast to the build up given by the reviews.

I think if the author took a newspaper, stabbed it 170 times at random with a pin and wrote down whatever sentences were pin-pricked, the result would have been hugely more interesting.
1701333
I'm amazed so many reviewers rave about this book. The plot to each story is dull. She writes well but the tales seem to go nowhere and fail to excite. And yet Wolf Hall and Bring Out The Bodies are brilliant, perhaps because she's helping to tell a real story, and she's terrific at this. Very disappointed in this anthology of short stories though.
3520834
I'm glad it was free because that is all it's worth. I can be just as silly as anyone but this is sophomoric, crude, and just plain dumb.