Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061713716 ISBN 13: 9780061713712

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2008

Synopsis

Not Quite What I Was Planning Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity--six words at a time.When Ernest Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half-dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way, too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true...

About this title

Review:

"Six-word review: Buy it, keep it in bathroom." -- Philadelphia Magazine

"The brilliance is in the brevity." -- New York Post

"The pithiest of life stories." -- O magazine

"You could spend a lifetime brainstorming." -- The New Yorker

"Irresistibly clever." -- Chicago Tribune

The brilliance is in the brevity. --New York Post

Irresistibly clever. --Chicago Tribune

The pithiest of life stories. --O magazine

"You could spend a lifetime brainstorming."--The New Yorker

"Six-word review: Buy it, keep it in bathroom."--Philadelphia Magazine

Synopsis:

Deceptively simple and suspiciously addictive, "Not Quite What I Was Planning: And Other Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure" is a thousand little glimpses at humanity - six words at a time. In 2006, "SMITH" Magazine decided to give people the opportunity to answer a Hemingway inspired challenge: What would a six-word memoir look like? Within weeks, submissions were coming in by the thousands and this book is the fruit of this amazing response. Famous contributors range from Joan Rivers to Dave Eggers, Mario Batali to Jonathan Lethem, Deepak Chopra to Moby. Most of the contributions, however, came from amateur writers. Examples; From Aimee Mann: 'Couldn't cope so I wrote songs.'; From Joyce Carol Oates: 'Revenge is living well, without you.'; From Joan Rivers: 'Liars, hysterectomy didn't improve sex life!'; And from unknown writers we have: Never really finished anything, except cake.Found true love, married someone else; Study mathematics. Marry slut. Sum bad; Caring for parents. Life is circular. This title presents a glorious mishmash of these and myriad other voices. It's a thousand little windows into humanity-six words at a time.

Whether the results are shocking, strange, silly, or sad, they are always entertaining, often inspiring, and totally addictive.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061713716
• ISBN 13: 9780061713712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 243
• Editor: Fershleiser Rachel, Smith Larry