This is a book of essays by Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections (soon to be read, still on the list). While I expected this book to be some sort of series of essays about how to deal with being alone, after being with someone (Franzen did get divorced from his wife at some point), it turns out to be almost the opposite, it is a book on how to be more alone. It centers on finding privacy in today’s crazy, busy world.

Since I was looking for methods on how to be comfortable being alone and not strategies on how to actually be more alone, feel more private, and live without others this wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but many of the essays are interested (most printed first in magazines, etc.) and really stand on their own.

This book also gives a good insight into Franzen’s life and background, dealing with both of his parents, and also a few aspects of his childhood, which will be nice for when I start reading The Corrections which is fictional, and according to my Dad just a really long book about spoiled modern people who complain a lot. I am going to read it anyway.