Books That Frustrate Me!

As some of you who have been following my blog for a while know, by mid-week I sometimes just seem to need to gripe a tiny little bit.  Things just build up, you know.  See this post if you don't know what I am referring to.

So today I am going to direct my venting in an atypical direction (for me, that is.)  In spite of the fact that I love love love to read, and will read just about anything, I need to complain a bit about some of the books and magazines I have that frustrate the heck out of me.

Here goes.  These are the publications that have me slightly miffed right now:

1.  Extreme Hotels (Tectum Publishers)

This book is a photographic collection of some of the most unusual places in the world to stay.  You can stay in an underwater lodge, in a wine barrel hotel, up in the Harbour Crane B & B, in a survival capsule hotel, or in the sewer pipe hotel, to list a few.  This book is fun reading, and the pictures fun to see.  What frustrates me is that so few of these hotels are in the United States, and therefore I most likely will never see nor stay in the vast majority of them.  And, anyone who knows me knows that I am always looking for unique accommodations in which to stay when I travel.  I'm putting that book back on the shelf for now.

2.  Beginning Google Blogger by Heather Wright-Porto

I bought this book because I am a beginning blogger (this is only my 66th post), and I was having a few troubles making my posts every now and then.  If I were more computer savvy I would probably not be having these difficulties, but I'm old.  I'm not of the generation that grew up with computers.  The computers I used in my college days took up half of the engineering building.  Anyway, this book claims to be "your complete resource on creating and managing a blog with Google Blogger."  I read the whole book, cover to cover, and it didn't even go near mentioning anything like the problems I've had.  Waste of $28.95?  Perhaps. May it rot on the end table.

3.  Short Styles magazine (Hairdo #47 Fall 2012)

I am getting a new haircut soon.  I need a new look.  So I purchased this magazine to page through and pick The One Perfect Haircut for me.  I always think that if I show the stylist the picture then I will look JUST LIKE THAT.  Who am I kidding?  The cover promises that these cuts will make you edgy, elegant, and even stunning.  Nah.  I may get a stylish new cut and even new color but it's still the same old me under it all.  This one's going in the trash.  Goodbye.

4.  Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen

This book is an enticing collection of "cross-country adventures on America's two-lane highways."  The front and back covers open out into U.S. maps with colored route lines that you can select from.  For example, I can clearly see the Route 66 mapped out in a cranberry red color.  I Will Do That Drive, someday.  Just not soon enough.  And that's frustrating because we are not retired yet.  So I'm putting that book back on my shelf, but right in the front where I can keep looking at it and dreaming.

5.  Micato Safaris 2012-2013 Catalog

I should have never even looked at this catalog of elite African tours.  You see, I've always dreamed of going on an African safari, seeing the exotic animals in Kenya, Tanzania, and I would even be happy to add on a few extra days to jaunt on over to Zanzibar.  I had myself convinced that this would be our 2013 pull-out-all-the-stops trip.  I even justified it:  in 2013 my husband and I will celebrate our 35th anniversary, AND he will celebrate his 40th year of employment at the same place, the job he has held since the summer after his high school graduation.  

We should do a big one, don't you think?  The problem here is that when I added up all the trip expenses, it came to almost $40,000 for a 20 day trip.  I'm still recovering from that bullet.  Sadly, I will need to bury this catalog.  If I keep looking at it, I will keep yearning.  I'm not throwing it away though...

6.  Weber's Big Book of Grilling by Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae

It's summertime, which always brings grilling to mind.  However, it never fails that when I have found a grilling recipe I want to make, and then purchase the ingredients, the temperature soars to an ungodly 95 degrees or so.  Who wants to make MORE heat on a hot day like that?  Just today, the weatherpeople are saying a heat spell is on its way again.  I'll be stayin' in the cool.  This book goes back on the shelf to keep my other cookbooks company. 

7.  New Treehouses of the World by Pete Nelson

This book was a gift from our wonderful neighbors, Bonnie and Paul, presented to us following our 30th anniversary trip in which the husband/lover/best friend and I stayed up in a luxury treehouse in Arkansas.  In their words, "to help you plan your next treetop vacation and remember your last one."  This book takes readers on an exciting tour of 35 international  treehouses.  I can look at this book for hours.  Seriously.  These treehouses are so amazing that my frustration is that I cannot narrow it down to ONE of them to travel to next and very few of them have toilets.  I keep getting this book out again and again, and then I sigh, and put it back on the shelf.  It's good to have dreams though, I'm sure.

I'm done being frustrated now.  Thank you for enjoying my little rant.

I wonder what's on my Kindle waiting to be read?  I guess I'll go have a look.