Selected Wisdom from Murderers, Stock Swindlers, and Lance Armstrong
Some of the time, cute little “nugget” books can be irritating; not enough meat, trivial, superficial. Even when I flipped through the pages of Good Advice from Bad People, I caught myself thinking, “reading enough of this to review it is going to be a drag.” It simply looked like a lot of stop-and-start chugging through.
Could. Not. Put. It. Down.
Really.
Even more, sometimes when you read “nugget” books straight through, they get draining because they are meant to be consumed like single-serving yogurt, not single-serving-big-bag-from-Sam’s-Club size.
Not so here.
I simply kept turning pages, eager to see what train wreck was coming next. And Bissonnette supplied one after another after another.
It’s not surprising to me that much of the “good advice” is somewhat trivial; in reality, most advice is trivial (the really good stuff is simply hard), and these are, after all, bad people. Lots of people received advice about being ethical and trustworthy from Bernie Maddoff…
From a longer point of view, the book also has a take-away effect. I didn’t know that the Men are From Mars guy was a walking relationship disaster, for example. Confirmation and affirmation that if I have any suspicions at all about advice books, I will do well to listen to my instincts.
Honestly? Put this book in a waiting room and it will get stolen. It’s simply too engaging to leave around where it can be slipped into a pocket.
Good Advice from Bad People
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