Joel Osteen's latest book, Become a Better You, hit the bookstores this week to the tune of 2.5 million copies. Apparently the book is an edited collection of his sermons.
Watch for Become a Better You to challenge Eat, Pray, Love for supremacy on the New York Times best-seller list. That Osteen marketing machine is awesome. You heard it here first!
The Houston Chronicle is treating us to a series of excerpts from the book this week which is running in the (what else?) Lifestyle section. Which presents me with an ethical dilemma.
Bad QG: I could read the excerpts and write a review based on them without having to buy the book!
Good QG: That would be wrong. You shouldn't review a book you didn't read in its entirety.
Bad QG: But if I read the whole book, it would probably get my goat and then I'd have to invoke the Goat Exception and write a negative review.
Good QG: Deliver me from temptation, Lord.
The struggle continues....
Watch for Become a Better You to challenge Eat, Pray, Love for supremacy on the New York Times best-seller list. That Osteen marketing machine is awesome. You heard it here first!
The Houston Chronicle is treating us to a series of excerpts from the book this week which is running in the (what else?) Lifestyle section. Which presents me with an ethical dilemma.
Bad QG: I could read the excerpts and write a review based on them without having to buy the book!
Good QG: That would be wrong. You shouldn't review a book you didn't read in its entirety.
Bad QG: But if I read the whole book, it would probably get my goat and then I'd have to invoke the Goat Exception and write a negative review.
Good QG: Deliver me from temptation, Lord.
The struggle continues....
Weeeell.....I'd hate to be the vehicle of further temptation, but...
ReplyDeleteAh, the good we want to do, we cannot... etc.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading the excerpts in the Chronicle and it seems like typical Joel. And given the worldly success he's been having, why would he change?
ReplyDeleteI think the title of the book is enough to base a review on. Joel's overall message seems to focus on what God can do for us, not what we can do for God.
I see lots of his books at GoodWill. For reals.
ReplyDeleteGive it a week, pay a dollar for it, write your review then.
LOL! That post cracked me up. If you really don't like writing negative reviews, then fight the urge! You can do it!
ReplyDeleteNow if the book contained his opening jokes, I'd read it as my wife only watches his TV sermons until after the intended joke, which she says is usually funny.
ReplyDeleteOf course, she says the rest of the sermon is the real joke !!
I heart you QG!
ReplyDeleteI would say either go with Mindy's advice and buy a used copy, or go ahead and listen to Bad QG. He and his marketing mahcine don't need your $30.
He's too easy a target, QG. And why line his pockets?
ReplyDeleteChristine,
ReplyDeleteExactly right.
I came back to see if you'd succumbed.
ReplyDeleteIt's all I can do to restrain myself from starting a Joel Osteen satire.
But hey, I'm embracing where I am.
You could always try the library ...
ReplyDeleteLike Mindy said, wait a week. But better than the Goodwill, you'll probably find one in the trash.
ReplyDeleteThen I say Goat For It!!!
;)
I think the title says it all. Ask not what you can do for God, but what God can do for you. It's funny but devastating at the same time.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the big article about the Osteens in the Chronicle last week, just before the book came out? At the beginnning of this article about the international reach of their empire was a big picture of a beaming Joel and Victoria, beneath the writer's innocent heading, "At Home in the World".
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah.
QG, that's how I'd be thinking, too!! I like your goat reviews.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine just proudly showed me her newly bought copy of this and I had the hardest time keeping a straight face as she extolled the wonders of what he had to say. To be honest, I've never heard of the guy before and I've not read the book, so I can't really form a judgement, but it sounded pretty fluffy.
ReplyDelete