Kirkkitsch’s Blog

Currently Reading…

How to Recognize Emotional Unavailability and Make Healthy Relationship Choices by Bryn Collins © 1997
Synopsis: [Via the dustjacket]
Recognize any of these types?

- Romeo and Romiette: Great Balcony, No Stamina
- Indiana Jones: The Dangerous Man
- Mama’s Boys and Daddy’s Girls
- Tens and Other Trophies
- The One in the Mirror: Narcissists and Other Self-Lovers
- Eels and Other Slippery Critters
- James Bond: Spies and Lies

Would you use any of these labels to describe your partner? Do you suspect that you are involved in a relationship with any of the types described above? One thing they all have in common is that they are all Emotionally Unavailable. Each behaves in a way that will ultimately make a truly honest emotional relationship impossible. An Emotionally Unavailable Person may excite, confound, fascinate, and provide ample food for your obsession, but he/she will never be yours.

How to recognize Emotional Unavailability and Make Healthier Relationship Choices defines some of these behavioral styles, but it also goes beyond definitions to provide techniques and tools for change.

In this book you’ll learn how to recognize Emotional Unavailability, learn the sources of the syndrome, acquire a framework for change and growth, and learn how to dump the toxic types and move on.
Comments: After reading other self-help books with RIDICULOUS titles, like:
- How To Get Anyone To Do Anything
- How To Change Anybody
- How To Get What You Want In 9 Days or Less
- Get People To Do What You Want
- Make Someone Love You Forever
I was already in full Eye-roll Mode and was ready to dismiss this book after reading the ‘cutesy’ “types” list on the back. Well, I’m REALLY glad I didn’t because I would’ve missed out on a really insightful book. I think it’s brilliant. It is DEAD ON! Even though I’m not in an actual “relationship” persay, I think this book has a lot of really great insight into the human psyche and I highly recommend it. There’s far too much to talk about to condense here in a snippet or two, so I’ll devote a post to it at a later date.

Pills-A-Go-Go: A Fiendish Investigation into Pill Marketing, Art, History & Consumption by Jim Hogshire © 1999
Synopsis: As the editor of an eponymous underground ‘zine devoted to celebrating pills “from the point of view of unrepentant drug takers,” Hogshire seeks to demystify the contents of our medicine chests. Calling pills “the quintessential icon of Western Civilization,” he bemoans the fact that America’s attitude toward pills is ambivalent at best, and blames this state of affairs on both an elitist medical profession and public information campaigns that create undue hysteria about the consequences of recreational drug use. Dividing the book into such chapters as “Another Clean-Cut, All-American Speed Freak,” “Amphetamines and Football,” “I Raided Tom Clancy’s Drug Stash” and “Great Pharmacist Authors,” he mixes cheerfully blistering rants against doctors, pharmacists and the FDA with overviews of the history, uses and side effects of various widely taken medications. Readers are told what security measures to take when breaking into a pharmacy, what combination of meds is most likely to prevent jet lag and how to forge a prescription. Brash, lively and lavishly illustrated, this is a fun and often informative read, although some of Hogshire’s pollyannaish conclusions about the benefits of pills should be taken with a grain of salt, if not a dose of Valium.
Comments: This book has it ALL! I’d been wanting to read it since I saw it over at Atomic Books a few years ago. Well, it doesn’t disappoint one bit! It’s chock full of vintage ads, book covers, etc. all relating to or referencing “pills” in all their manifestations. It’s everything I wanted it to be and more! If you’re a fan of kitsch, pop culture or pill culture, you’ll totally dig and appreciate this thorough and insightful book. Highly recommended!

Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic. by David Nadelberg © 2006
Synopsis: If the only way to heal painful high school memories is to laugh at someone else’s painful high school memories, this book can accurately be labeled the antidote. Based on Nadelberg’s stage show of the same name, this is a raw, hilarious compendium of real childhood and high school journals, essays and letters, with rueful commentary from their now-adult writers-each of whom deserve applause for their bravery and generosity. Entries enumerate the dumb-founding horror of sexual awakening (“I like him. But I don’t know if I like him. But I don’t hate him. I don’t wanna like him!”), the frustration of feeling different (“I hate Black History Month. It’s the one month out of the year when white people feel comfortable to ask me all sorts of strange, inappropriate questions”) and the bizarre dreams of adolescence (such as one contributor’s Duran Duran fan fiction, which must be read to be believed). Unafraid to delve into sex and drugs, Nadelberg even includes some charming amateur erotica written by a clueless twelve-year-old. Illustrated with great awkward-phase photos, this treasure-chest of confusion and angst will make readers squirm and smile with the realization that, as Nadelberg puts it, “we were all that same strange kid.”
Comments: I came across this book earlier this year, but was too tightfisted to pay full price for it at the time. Thank goodness, because I found this one in the Clearance section of Half Price Books for just $2! Woo hoo! Hilarious and totally relatable to anyone who was ever a wide-eyed kid.

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