Rating: 
Summary: I felt the whole range of emotions...
Review: "My Misspent Youth" is a welcome change from the usual kind of books I read, which are very technical computer textbooks. I just happend to come across this while searching Amazon for more computer books, when I noticed Ira Glass recomended this book. Being a "This American Life" fan (From NPR,) I just had to buy it.Overall I loved her writting style and long-flowing sentences. She has a well articulated stream-of-conscience process which I can easily connect with. Meghan states in the preface that this book has a point. That it's more than just a rambling dribble of essays. In truth, I could not find any actual point to her essays. Her essays are really just an introverted thought process during various situations in her life. But they're still interesting. Perhaps it's her great writting style which kept me interested. It's odd that I say that..."kept me interested." By the time I got to the middle of the book, (oh, after the third essay or so...) I realized I have absolutely nothing in common with this "chick", and why in the world am I still reading this stuff? After all, she's one of "those people" who actualy like hardwood floors in her house. Strange. She's *VERY* superficial. Way too critical -- even for a New Yorker. Unfairly harsh at times. I about tossed the book out when she mentioned how much she likes Jewish men, yet she couldn't stand the (non-jew) guys she dated who talked too much. HA! BUT... She's absolutely honost. She's highly motivated, with a strong work ethic. And even though she's critical, she's critical from both sides of an issue. She and I share deeper understandings and experiences of the world, like being the "poor" kid in college even though we were way smarter and better able to deal with "the real world" then the "rich" kids. We both had (have?) major financial hurdles to deal with after college, yet our perseverence and brains are keeping us ahead of others in our field. Perhaps it's these deeper virtues which draw me to her. But, like my title says, she made me feel just about every emotion I'm capable of feeling - which is the REAL reason I like her so much. - Richard G.
Rating:
Summary: I felt the whole range of emotions...
Review: "My Misspent Youth" is a welcome change from the usual kind of books I read, which are very technical computer textbooks. I just happend to come across this while searching Amazon for more computer books, when I noticed Ira Glass recomended this book. Being a "This American Life" fan (From NPR,) I just had to buy it. Overall I loved her writting style and long-flowing sentences. She has a well articulated stream-of-conscience process which I can easily connect with. Meghan states in the preface that this book has a point. That it's more than just a rambling dribble of essays. In truth, I could not find any actual point to her essays. Her essays are really just an introverted thought process during various situations in her life. But they're still interesting. Perhaps it's her great writting style which kept me interested. It's odd that I say that..."kept me interested." By the time I got to the middle of the book, (oh, after the third essay or so...) I realized I have absolutely nothing in common with this "chick", and why in the world am I still reading this stuff? After all, she's one of "those people" who actualy like hardwood floors in her house. Strange. She's *VERY* superficial. Way too critical -- even for a New Yorker. Unfairly harsh at times. I about tossed the book out when she mentioned how much she likes Jewish men, yet she couldn't stand the (non-jew) guys she dated who talked too much. HA! BUT... She's absolutely honost. She's highly motivated, with a strong work ethic. And even though she's critical, she's critical from both sides of an issue. She and I share deeper understandings and experiences of the world, like being the "poor" kid in college even though we were way smarter and better able to deal with "the real world" then the "rich" kids. We both had (have?) major financial hurdles to deal with after college, yet our perseverence and brains are keeping us ahead of others in our field. Perhaps it's these deeper virtues which draw me to her. But, like my title says, she made me feel just about every emotion I'm capable of feeling - which is the REAL reason I like her so much. - Richard G.
Rating:
Summary: A Rising Star
Review: After reading just one essay by Meghan Daum when it first appeared in The New Yorker, coincidentally the title piece of MY MISSPENT YOUTH, I wanted more, more, more of her prose. So I was understandably thrilled when a recent web search turned up this first collection of her work and, having read it, I am even more thrilled. She is really, really good. She's so good, she's scary. Daum's pieces share in common what she calls a point, which someone else bent on stuffy superlatives might call an overarching theme. Either way, she's not imposing some pat formula on life but has pulled out a bona fide truth about the human condition in its many different circumstances, that we simultaneously operate in two worlds, one a concoction of dreams, prejudices and cultural conditioning, the other, reality. Each of her essays is a moment of reckoning, of understanding how the imagined world has tipped the real one, of having to bow to the real one. In unflinching prose that just sweeps along, she pursues truth as a player, occasionally as a witness. The quality of her work reminds me of what Carol Burnett said about having no choice but to become the star because she was a misfit in the chorus: Daum, incapable of following through on requests that she submit to puppy mill essaying on Gen-X preoccupations (she's about 31), has positioned herself in the territory of Joan Didion and our finest cultural commentators.
Rating: 
Summary: More of a snob than a wit
Review: Although many of her observations are dead-on, and I did enjoy a few of these essays, she too often comes across as an insecure, judgmental snob. It's fine to be self deprecating about her middle class, New Jersey upbringing, and I certainly understand her appreciation of and desire for a more refined existence, but when she lays into other groups who don't meet her high minded cultural standards she strikes me as mean spirited and immature. Her essay on her revulsion of wall to wall carpet and how she uses carpet as criteria to dismiss and judge immediately wore thin and made her appear shallow and a little pathetic. Perhaps she has to cling to her standards of superficial elitism and judge others because that's all she has, besides a mountain of debt accrued from trying to maintain this image.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and insightful
Review: Being a New Yorker searching for my next apartment, I really loved this book. Anyone that is struggling with starting a career while managing a huge debt will be able to relate. I couldn't put this book down, and was wanting more when it ended. She has a great sense of humor and a great writing style. And while I could relate to her woes, I took them with a grain of salt. She is pretty, talented, and from a secure financial background. Not all of us start out with any of that. But don't get me wrong, I still loved every word in that book. Well worth buying IMHO.
Rating: 
Summary: oh stinky
Review: Don't waste your time with this dreck. go get Dan Zevin's "The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up."
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: found this book yummy. looking forward to more from ms. daum. in the meantime, i'll be lending my copy out and buying additional copies for friends.
Rating:
Summary: My relationship with Meghan
Review: I fell in love with Meghan while reading her book but our love was short-lived, as I'm not compatible with Meghan for reasons you can guess while turning these pages. It is the sort of love that doesn't leave you because it cannot ultimately be satisfying, but rather the kind of compromised love one would possess after the slow realization that the person one is planning marriage with is simply a little too much this or not quite enough that. I don't find Meghan arrogant or annoying, and I understand her repugnance for carpeting. I may not agree with all of her social and material preferences but I endlessly admire the conviction of her idiosyncratic nature. Meghan, if you're reading this: please do write again.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth will set you free
Review: I found MY MISSPENT YOUTH almost too painful to read. Thankfully I stuck with her wonderfully written essays and can say I'm a better man for it. I too suffered at the hands of a New York City and almost went bankrupt trying to self-actualize on my creative ambitions. The big break never happened, something that never factored into the game plan. New York City, that place drives me nuts! I just can't help but talk about my plight because what Meghan perfectly verbalized in MY MISSPENT YOUTH captures my New York experience and my twenties in ways I could never articulate. And at the root of her essays Meghan subtly answers the meaning of life. For real! That is, the meaning of life for those who failed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I really looked forward to this book after reading one of Daum's stories (the title piece) in THE NEW YORKER a couple of years ago. The collection, however, is a disappointment. Daum writes about some major topics of interest but something is "off." I was offended by her smugness, even though she tries repeatedly to work in as many disclaimers as she can, to justify her attitudes. The story about flight attendants was terrific and I know why -- it wasn't ALL ABOUT DAUM like most of them. She just strikes me as a very obnoxious person and as a result this book was neither a pleasurable nor a particular intelligent read.
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