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Now for the Disappointing Part: A Pseudo-Adult?s Decade of Short-Term Jobs, Long-Term Relationships, and Holding Out for Something Better
True stories from the world of temporary employment for anyone terrified of being stuck in a job they hate.
When Steven Barker was twelve, his father, in pursuit of the American Dream, moved the family from Canada to Connecticut, having worked his way up from an IBM mailroom to landing a vice president position in a top computer factory. Steven, in contrast, has followed the philosophy of “quit everything until you find something you don’t want to quit,” and has spent over fifteen years as a contract employee, a demographic that has come to make up 2 percent of the nation’s work force. Now for the Disappointing Part is the first collection of essays written for the temp workers of the millennial generation—those who, by choice or circumstance, delay or abandon plans for long-term careers for the variety (and anxiety) of contract work.
Funny, insightful, and sometimes shocking, Barker details his life moving from job to job as his contracts expire. He faces abuse as an account manager at Amazon when callers assume he’s in India. He learns about office politics at a nonprofit. And he attends an open call at UPS for holiday help. The chapters explore issues ranging from financial instability to how gender and race play into the workforce to the (often poor) treatment temporary employees receive compared to full-time employees performing the same job. Throughout Barker also reveals his parallel relationships with women, which, like the jobs he works, appear to have predetermined expiration dates.
Now for the Disappointing Part is more than the stories of a man who thinks life is too short to spend forty hours a week doing something you hate. It will resonate with a generation of people who are struggling to find work, stability, and happiness, and are afraid of losing all of them.
When Steven Barker was twelve, his father, in pursuit of the American Dream, moved the family from Canada to Connecticut, having worked his way up from an IBM mailroom to landing a vice president position in a top computer factory. Steven, in contrast, has followed the philosophy of “quit everything until you find something you don’t want to quit,” and has spent over fifteen years as a contract employee, a demographic that has come to make up 2 percent of the nation’s work force. Now for the Disappointing Part is the first collection of essays written for the temp workers of the millennial generation—those who, by choice or circumstance, delay or abandon plans for long-term careers for the variety (and anxiety) of contract work.
Funny, insightful, and sometimes shocking, Barker details his life moving from job to job as his contracts expire. He faces abuse as an account manager at Amazon when callers assume he’s in India. He learns about office politics at a nonprofit. And he attends an open call at UPS for holiday help. The chapters explore issues ranging from financial instability to how gender and race play into the workforce to the (often poor) treatment temporary employees receive compared to full-time employees performing the same job. Throughout Barker also reveals his parallel relationships with women, which, like the jobs he works, appear to have predetermined expiration dates.
Now for the Disappointing Part is more than the stories of a man who thinks life is too short to spend forty hours a week doing something you hate. It will resonate with a generation of people who are struggling to find work, stability, and happiness, and are afraid of losing all of them.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2016
32 people are currently reading
1001 people want to read
About the author
Steven Barker
1 book26 followersSteven Barker is the author of the essay collection “Now for the Disappointing Part: A Pseudo-Adult’s Decade of Short-Term Jobs, Long-Term Relationships, and Holding Out for Something Better,” released by Skyhorse Publishing in 2016. He is a 2014-2015 Made at Hugo Fellow, and a co-founder of “Cheap Wine & Poetry” and “Cheap Beer & Prose.” His work has appeared in Salon, Brevity, HAD, The Weeklings, Split Lip Magazine, PageBoy Magazine, The Monarch Review, Geekwire, and elsewhere.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 21, 2016
Quick tales about life in the temp industry. Many people will find this relatable. Makes you really think about what an atrocity permanent temp working is. By the end I was not sure if the author was trying to sell us on temp work as long as it was a job that you liked?
I feel like this story might have been even more interesting had the author had a family to support. It was hard at times to feel sympathy for someone with such a Laissez-faire attitude.
Buy, Borrow or Bin Verdict: Borrow
Check out more of my reviews here
Note: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
September 22, 2017
I received this through the Goodreads Giveaway program. This will be the first book I'll have read by Steven Barker.
I was immediately drawn into the narrative as Mr. Barker described his search for the perfect way to make enough money to live on while doing something he loved. Sound familiar anyone?
Even though he had a degree he struggled to find the position that allowed him the creativity he strived for while paying his bills. Relationships were lost along the way, interesting characters (and some not so interesting) were met and common policies in large companies were disclosed.
You may never look at another Expedia ad or think about Amazon in quite the same way! But you'll definitely want to become a devotee of Powell Books.
A great book about staying true to yourself.
I was immediately drawn into the narrative as Mr. Barker described his search for the perfect way to make enough money to live on while doing something he loved. Sound familiar anyone?
Even though he had a degree he struggled to find the position that allowed him the creativity he strived for while paying his bills. Relationships were lost along the way, interesting characters (and some not so interesting) were met and common policies in large companies were disclosed.
You may never look at another Expedia ad or think about Amazon in quite the same way! But you'll definitely want to become a devotee of Powell Books.
A great book about staying true to yourself.
February 7, 2017
Now For The Disappointing Part was, well, unfortunately a bit disappointing. I was off to a strong start, as the author describes in the preface that he feels in the cusp of being born a Millennial and in Generation X (had he been born five months earlier). I am more than five months older than him and have never been considered a Millennial, but I finished college as a non-traditional student and have been on a Millennial education and career path. I was excited to relate to some of his struggles as someone who identifies with a generation of current parents as well as their adult children. By the end of the book I felt like the full-fledged "Get off my lawn" Gen-X codger I was born to be. Steven Barker's essays are humorous and I can understand why others enjoy them more than I did, but injecting humor as he's done in these tales of temporary employment makes him come across as if he hasn't struggled much through his adult life of unemployment and temp work. It's"s hard to relate to someone who seems privileged enough not to sweat losing unemployment benefits due to their own mismanagement. My student loan debt haunts me even when I'm gainfully employed. It seemed as though he had the luxury of just screwing around with random temp jobs just to give him something to write about. To be fair, he ended up doing just that.
Also, I call b.s. on anyone who eats that much mac & cheese and says they couldn't tell the difference between store brand and Kraft in a blind taste test. What store brand was he buying? I could probably tell the difference in a blind smell test before even tasting. In college, the splurge for the blue box was an unforgettable experience: pure luxury and indulgence.
What I did like, along with his sense of humor, was some of the insights he provides as a Canadian with a green card working in th U.S. He recognizes how he's treated on the job at a call center, compared to his American coworker with an Indian accent. He's assumed to be American, she is assumed to be an immigrant. In reality, he's never even applied for U.S. citizenship and she was born in the U.S.
Overall the book was worth a read, but it was a strange mix of being humorous but not really lighthearted, and with rare moments of depth. I would have liked to see a little more depth throughout. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy for review
Also, I call b.s. on anyone who eats that much mac & cheese and says they couldn't tell the difference between store brand and Kraft in a blind taste test. What store brand was he buying? I could probably tell the difference in a blind smell test before even tasting. In college, the splurge for the blue box was an unforgettable experience: pure luxury and indulgence.
What I did like, along with his sense of humor, was some of the insights he provides as a Canadian with a green card working in th U.S. He recognizes how he's treated on the job at a call center, compared to his American coworker with an Indian accent. He's assumed to be American, she is assumed to be an immigrant. In reality, he's never even applied for U.S. citizenship and she was born in the U.S.
Overall the book was worth a read, but it was a strange mix of being humorous but not really lighthearted, and with rare moments of depth. I would have liked to see a little more depth throughout. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy for review
November 3, 2016
These essays are more down-to-earth and honest than the “Great American” ones that get featured in a book once a year. I guess I can connect more with this essayist, because time and again, I have had to go through what he went through, as he penned these musings.
Now for the Disappointing Part (the essay) was one of my favorite ones, since I had gone through a period of unemployment myself. Unemployment is a great leveling field. It breaks downs social barriers, and it tempers misplaced pride. What is decent and what is abusive – I guess the answers will have to be relative to one’s baseline of contentment and purpose, as reflected in the conclusion of that essay.
I am savoring these essays, so I did not exactly read all of these in one sitting. I am reading them a day at a time. I have read enough to note that what makes these entries worth anyone’s time, is the fact that at the end of each, I am left with a smirk, a ‘hmmm’, and a series of thoughts that I want to either discuss with someone or respond to in a journal entry myself. As far as I am concerned, that is what good essays are all about.
I received a review copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing via NetGalley.
Now for the Disappointing Part (the essay) was one of my favorite ones, since I had gone through a period of unemployment myself. Unemployment is a great leveling field. It breaks downs social barriers, and it tempers misplaced pride. What is decent and what is abusive – I guess the answers will have to be relative to one’s baseline of contentment and purpose, as reflected in the conclusion of that essay.
I am savoring these essays, so I did not exactly read all of these in one sitting. I am reading them a day at a time. I have read enough to note that what makes these entries worth anyone’s time, is the fact that at the end of each, I am left with a smirk, a ‘hmmm’, and a series of thoughts that I want to either discuss with someone or respond to in a journal entry myself. As far as I am concerned, that is what good essays are all about.
I received a review copy of this book from Skyhorse Publishing via NetGalley.
August 20, 2020
I didn't find this book overly exciting or motivational. I guess there were peices of the book that I enjoyed or got a laugh from, but for the most part, this book left me frustrated. Sometimes I get frustrated at book characters for doing stupid things, but this book was double frustrating because it was allegedly, a real human doing these things. As the book went on, I really started to resent the main character (and I hope the author doesn't read this because I don't mean for it to be personal, but he's the one who wrote a personal book so...)
I hated the main charector for all his awful entitlement. When talking about his childhood, he talks about how he wasn't as well off as the super well off kids (because mom an dad didn't buy every little thing) without acknowledging how much worse he could have had it. He talks about getting a part time job in college so he could buy weed, not to pay tuition or anything like that. And he shows just how poorly he treated the women in his life. He treated them as boring secondary charectors in his book, only supportive to his narrative, and also treated them the same in real life.
I think what this book lacked was any struggle. The main character doesn't struggle. Nowhere in the book is he worried about becoming homeless (he can always move back in with mom and dad). Nowhere in the book does he worry about obstacles to his goals (like how to pay for college, how to get writing work out there). The truth is, he doesn't struggle. He floats through life and makes zero effort to move forward. He is not a character that I felt inclined to root for at all. In fact I was disappointed when he got his happy dream job all together handed to him.
The only successful way to write this book would have been to focus on the temp work, because it did show the humorous struggle of someone trying to make temp jobs work for them. But all the other stuff, the relationships, the coasting, the claiming to be a writer just because he got drunk and wrote poetry every other week, all that just left me hating the main character.
If I could describe this book in a sentance I would say "entitled white boy complains about how sucky it is that his dream life doesn't just fall into his lap".
I hated the main charector for all his awful entitlement. When talking about his childhood, he talks about how he wasn't as well off as the super well off kids (because mom an dad didn't buy every little thing) without acknowledging how much worse he could have had it. He talks about getting a part time job in college so he could buy weed, not to pay tuition or anything like that. And he shows just how poorly he treated the women in his life. He treated them as boring secondary charectors in his book, only supportive to his narrative, and also treated them the same in real life.
I think what this book lacked was any struggle. The main character doesn't struggle. Nowhere in the book is he worried about becoming homeless (he can always move back in with mom and dad). Nowhere in the book does he worry about obstacles to his goals (like how to pay for college, how to get writing work out there). The truth is, he doesn't struggle. He floats through life and makes zero effort to move forward. He is not a character that I felt inclined to root for at all. In fact I was disappointed when he got his happy dream job all together handed to him.
The only successful way to write this book would have been to focus on the temp work, because it did show the humorous struggle of someone trying to make temp jobs work for them. But all the other stuff, the relationships, the coasting, the claiming to be a writer just because he got drunk and wrote poetry every other week, all that just left me hating the main character.
If I could describe this book in a sentance I would say "entitled white boy complains about how sucky it is that his dream life doesn't just fall into his lap".
February 4, 2018
I got through the first part of this essay collection and well into the second before pausing at these sentences: "I had money in my savings account and didn't have any debt, so losing my benefits wasn't going to put me on the street. I was confident my bachelor's degree was enough to land me an entry-level office job, or I could always go back to delivering pizza. If things really went south, I could get a loan from my folks" (106).
Now, in the preface, Barker does admit that he isn't a traditional Millenial in that his arrested development isn't due primarily to economic failures, but rather because of the choices he made to explore creative writing while doing temp jobs. Still, I find it somewhat frustrating to read yet another book about a middle-class white man and his self-imposed struggles. I want to see more books written by Ashleys and Melissas.
Now, in the preface, Barker does admit that he isn't a traditional Millenial in that his arrested development isn't due primarily to economic failures, but rather because of the choices he made to explore creative writing while doing temp jobs. Still, I find it somewhat frustrating to read yet another book about a middle-class white man and his self-imposed struggles. I want to see more books written by Ashleys and Melissas.
October 29, 2016
This was an enjoyable enough look at the life of a temp worker. Steve Barker does a good job of describing the struggles and uncertainty associated with short-term, contract based work. If you're considering short term career options or if you already take part in work like that then there is plenty that will be relatable or interesting here.
I would have liked to see a bit more of a critique on how some companies exploit workers using temp contracts. There was some discussion of this, but I feel like the author had a lot more thoughts on the topic that he didn't share for some reason. The author also made mention of the fact that this book started out as a collection of essays and that impression does come across. It felt a little disjointed at times.
I would have liked to see a bit more of a critique on how some companies exploit workers using temp contracts. There was some discussion of this, but I feel like the author had a lot more thoughts on the topic that he didn't share for some reason. The author also made mention of the fact that this book started out as a collection of essays and that impression does come across. It felt a little disjointed at times.
July 6, 2017
Funny, touching, and compulsively readable, this dispatch from the temp world's front lines skewers corporate culture while keeping its focus on the often forgotten humanity behind all of those keyboards. Recommended!
March 5, 2018
Hilarious! Easy to read and hard to put down. The author is an essayist who is honest and witty. The way he speaks his mind makes this book very relatable and fun. Hoping and looking forward to more work done by him.
August 8, 2017
I really liked the essays in this book which flowed over into each other and sometimes gave a peak into the city I currently live in as well. Definitely a lot of fun to read :)
sampled-not-interested
March 2, 2018Eh. Just because something is "relatable" doesn't mean it's interesting or readable.
Was looking for humor. This was't it.
Was looking for humor. This was't it.
September 15, 2020
Maybe upward mobility isn't for everyone.
This book gave me mental whiplash. First I felt sorry for the kid. Just finished college and no plans. OK. There's no law against not having your life mapped out at the age of fifteen and sticking with the plan. Then his over-bearing father insists that he move home and take a job at Dad's factory, in exchange for a cheap used car. Dad sounded like a jerk and it's not easy being the son of a jerk.
Reading on, I discovered that Dad is far from being a jerk or a heavy-handed father. He's a Canadian who grew up poor, put himself through college, and worked (sixty hours a week) to rise up in the ranks in a large U.S. corporation. He gave his kids (two sons and a daughter) the American dream (big house in a ritzy Northeast location and college paid for by the parents) but he also wanted them to understand that things cost money and money comes from work. So his son had to do chores in exchange for a bike and the allowances weren't the fat ones that his friends had.
Lesson learned: my parents worked hard for what they have and I have to work hard if I want the same life. It sounds simple, but look at all the parents you know whose kids reach adulthood expecting to live like the 'rents without any effort. So for a few more chapters, I was on Dad's side and commiserating with him about having a son who seemed to want nothing more than to be a beach bum.
Eventually, I developed a certain respect for the young man (who's not all THAT young by the time the book ends.) He's immature and unfocused, but he DOES expect to support himself. He isn't exactly angry at "the system" that made his father a success and allowed him to give his children easier childhoods than he had. It's just that the son can't see himself fitting into that system. He knows he loves to write, but has no confidence in himself as a writer. He drifts along, taking a series of short-term temp jobs in order to pay rent on his very modest (OK, crummy) apartment and keep gas in the car and buy Ramen noodles to survive.
This temporary plan goes on much longer than he anticipated. Several girl friends latch onto him. He's a nice guy and the sort of youngster who appeals to many young woman as a "fixer-upper." After all, his parents live the upper middle class life and he DOES have a degree, so sooner or later he'll "grow up" and get a real job and buy into the American dream - big house, SUVs, and vacations at DisneyWorld. But he's not interested and the GFs run out of patience and leave.
So is he a lazy bum? A free spirit who marches to a different drummer? A happy minimalist? Or just a wanna-be writer unlucky to be born in an age when young writers can't turn to newspaper writing to pay the bills while they hone their skills?
He put in years working temps jobs as a shelf-stocker or a customer service rep. Most of those years were with a large company we all buy from and the name starts with an "A" and ends with an "n." Better not be more specific than that, since I'm writing this review for that company. The author doesn't like that company worth a damn and believes that it chews up labor and spits it out, using temp workers to avoid paying decent wages and benefits.
I'm happy for him that he finally found a job he loves, but what took him so long? Lack of confidence? Unwillingness to make the effort? Or just a really late bloomer?
I enjoyed this book far more than I would have expected to if you'd given me a summary of it. The writing is above average. The author is likable in a goofy, hopeless kind of way. I admire his honesty and his determination to stand on his own feet. At no point does he borrow from Dad, no matter how convenient it would be. He's clueless, but he never blames his troubles on anyone else. These are choices that HE'S making and he lives with them.
I admire him for his good heart and the fact that he respects people on the basis of their actions, not their titles or how much money they have. He may have grown up in a wealthy American neighborhood, but he's learned that there ARE other cultures and other ways of living and he doesn't look down on them. He understands that he was dealt a good hand in life and that others weren't. It's obvious he loves his parents and wants them to be proud of him, but not at the expense of trying to live a life that would make him miserable.
It's a look at the modern corporate world from the viewpoint of the least important, most easily replaced worker bee. I'm not saying he's got it all right, because I don't know. I think the guy tries to be honest and give credit where it's due.
It's also a reminder that upward mobility isn't automatic. A kid raised in a poor home usually wants to move up, but a kid raised in a well-to-do home doesn't necessarily want the same life as an adult. And turning your back on your parents' lifestyle doesn't always mean rejecting them or their beliefs. It can be a simple personal decision. Isn't that how it should be?
This book gave me mental whiplash. First I felt sorry for the kid. Just finished college and no plans. OK. There's no law against not having your life mapped out at the age of fifteen and sticking with the plan. Then his over-bearing father insists that he move home and take a job at Dad's factory, in exchange for a cheap used car. Dad sounded like a jerk and it's not easy being the son of a jerk.
Reading on, I discovered that Dad is far from being a jerk or a heavy-handed father. He's a Canadian who grew up poor, put himself through college, and worked (sixty hours a week) to rise up in the ranks in a large U.S. corporation. He gave his kids (two sons and a daughter) the American dream (big house in a ritzy Northeast location and college paid for by the parents) but he also wanted them to understand that things cost money and money comes from work. So his son had to do chores in exchange for a bike and the allowances weren't the fat ones that his friends had.
Lesson learned: my parents worked hard for what they have and I have to work hard if I want the same life. It sounds simple, but look at all the parents you know whose kids reach adulthood expecting to live like the 'rents without any effort. So for a few more chapters, I was on Dad's side and commiserating with him about having a son who seemed to want nothing more than to be a beach bum.
Eventually, I developed a certain respect for the young man (who's not all THAT young by the time the book ends.) He's immature and unfocused, but he DOES expect to support himself. He isn't exactly angry at "the system" that made his father a success and allowed him to give his children easier childhoods than he had. It's just that the son can't see himself fitting into that system. He knows he loves to write, but has no confidence in himself as a writer. He drifts along, taking a series of short-term temp jobs in order to pay rent on his very modest (OK, crummy) apartment and keep gas in the car and buy Ramen noodles to survive.
This temporary plan goes on much longer than he anticipated. Several girl friends latch onto him. He's a nice guy and the sort of youngster who appeals to many young woman as a "fixer-upper." After all, his parents live the upper middle class life and he DOES have a degree, so sooner or later he'll "grow up" and get a real job and buy into the American dream - big house, SUVs, and vacations at DisneyWorld. But he's not interested and the GFs run out of patience and leave.
So is he a lazy bum? A free spirit who marches to a different drummer? A happy minimalist? Or just a wanna-be writer unlucky to be born in an age when young writers can't turn to newspaper writing to pay the bills while they hone their skills?
He put in years working temps jobs as a shelf-stocker or a customer service rep. Most of those years were with a large company we all buy from and the name starts with an "A" and ends with an "n." Better not be more specific than that, since I'm writing this review for that company. The author doesn't like that company worth a damn and believes that it chews up labor and spits it out, using temp workers to avoid paying decent wages and benefits.
I'm happy for him that he finally found a job he loves, but what took him so long? Lack of confidence? Unwillingness to make the effort? Or just a really late bloomer?
I enjoyed this book far more than I would have expected to if you'd given me a summary of it. The writing is above average. The author is likable in a goofy, hopeless kind of way. I admire his honesty and his determination to stand on his own feet. At no point does he borrow from Dad, no matter how convenient it would be. He's clueless, but he never blames his troubles on anyone else. These are choices that HE'S making and he lives with them.
I admire him for his good heart and the fact that he respects people on the basis of their actions, not their titles or how much money they have. He may have grown up in a wealthy American neighborhood, but he's learned that there ARE other cultures and other ways of living and he doesn't look down on them. He understands that he was dealt a good hand in life and that others weren't. It's obvious he loves his parents and wants them to be proud of him, but not at the expense of trying to live a life that would make him miserable.
It's a look at the modern corporate world from the viewpoint of the least important, most easily replaced worker bee. I'm not saying he's got it all right, because I don't know. I think the guy tries to be honest and give credit where it's due.
It's also a reminder that upward mobility isn't automatic. A kid raised in a poor home usually wants to move up, but a kid raised in a well-to-do home doesn't necessarily want the same life as an adult. And turning your back on your parents' lifestyle doesn't always mean rejecting them or their beliefs. It can be a simple personal decision. Isn't that how it should be?
September 14, 2020
This book was free on Amazon, and I downloaded it because I was drawn in by the cover and the subtitle. I was not expecting much from a free book, but I actually quite enjoyed reading it. The book was humorous (not LOL funny, but enjoyable to read) and the writing style unpretentious, unlike what many other creative-writing-degree-holding first-time-authors would probably have written.
I am a salaried employee, so I didn't really have this kind of view into the world of temporary office workers. I didn't even know it existed, or that so many college graduates had been sucked into it. I loved his descriptions of his co-workers. Their personalities jumped off the pages. I loved his juxtaposition of blue-collar workers to his fellow temps... his working-class compatriots were the only ones he remembered the names of, and they somehow felt more real; everyone else from his cubicle jobs only had nicknames assigned to them, even a lot of the ones he was pals with.
The apparent inability for the author to commit to anything in his life (besides Macaroni & Cheese) was horrific to witness playing out, both in his personal and professional life. I take that back- he was solidly committed to being a temporary employee. He had the lifestyle planned out, a budgeting strategy that supported it, and he enjoyed his time off work more than his time spent at his various drudgeries. For someone who had no solid plans and commitment issues, in the pages of this book, Barker seems to know what he'll be doing every day for the rest of his life.
Also it ended very abruptly.
I am a salaried employee, so I didn't really have this kind of view into the world of temporary office workers. I didn't even know it existed, or that so many college graduates had been sucked into it. I loved his descriptions of his co-workers. Their personalities jumped off the pages. I loved his juxtaposition of blue-collar workers to his fellow temps... his working-class compatriots were the only ones he remembered the names of, and they somehow felt more real; everyone else from his cubicle jobs only had nicknames assigned to them, even a lot of the ones he was pals with.
The apparent inability for the author to commit to anything in his life (besides Macaroni & Cheese) was horrific to witness playing out, both in his personal and professional life. I take that back- he was solidly committed to being a temporary employee. He had the lifestyle planned out, a budgeting strategy that supported it, and he enjoyed his time off work more than his time spent at his various drudgeries. For someone who had no solid plans and commitment issues, in the pages of this book, Barker seems to know what he'll be doing every day for the rest of his life.
Also it ended very abruptly.
September 22, 2017
I received this through the Goodreads Giveaway program. This will be the first book I'll have read by Steven Barker.
I was immediately drawn into the narrative as Mr. Barker described his search for the perfect way to make enough money to live on while doing something he loved. Sound familiar anyone?
Even though he had a degree he struggled to find the position that allowed him the creativity he strived for while paying his bills. Relationships were lost along the way, interesting characters (and some not so interesting) were met and common policies in large companies were disclosed.
You may never look at another Expedia ad or think about Amazon in quite the same way! But you'll definitely want to become a devotee of Powell Books.
A great book about staying true to yourself.
I was immediately drawn into the narrative as Mr. Barker described his search for the perfect way to make enough money to live on while doing something he loved. Sound familiar anyone?
Even though he had a degree he struggled to find the position that allowed him the creativity he strived for while paying his bills. Relationships were lost along the way, interesting characters (and some not so interesting) were met and common policies in large companies were disclosed.
You may never look at another Expedia ad or think about Amazon in quite the same way! But you'll definitely want to become a devotee of Powell Books.
A great book about staying true to yourself.
August 30, 2019
Steve Barker has the funniest and most memorable description of the smell of fish ever written. But that's not the only great part of this book. It's honest, charming, and balances moments of levity with heartfelt observations about society, work, and a rotating cast of characters who enter and exit his life as if through revolving doors. He sees himself and his motivations clearly and without any self-serving ego.
In short, it's a great book and well-written. I look forward to reading whatever Barker writes next.
In short, it's a great book and well-written. I look forward to reading whatever Barker writes next.
December 10, 2019
This has been sitting on my Kindle for a while. I purchased it because the title and cover looked intriguing and I usually enjoy compilations of personal essays.
This one was solidly okay. It wasn't incredibly impressive but it wasn't torturous to read, either. It coasted. Some chapters were better than others. There were a few spelling mistakes that irked me. The writing style seemed to mirror the author's life quite closely.
It's a perfectly middle-of-the-pack book. I don't really have strong feelings one way or another.
This one was solidly okay. It wasn't incredibly impressive but it wasn't torturous to read, either. It coasted. Some chapters were better than others. There were a few spelling mistakes that irked me. The writing style seemed to mirror the author's life quite closely.
It's a perfectly middle-of-the-pack book. I don't really have strong feelings one way or another.
January 20, 2017
As a former freelancer myself, and as a current tech worker, and as a millennial trying to do things a little less than traditionally, this book rang very true for me. The essays flowed well from one to the next, thematically linked but able to stand alone as well, and I found the stark, impeccably honest tone both appealing and laugh-inducing. And yes, I wiped away a tear or two when Steven's insights hit close to home.
March 6, 2018
A thirty-something's account of his life while he is deciding what to be when he grows up. Amusing at times, but it's a good thing that he did not have a family to support like most men his age. At times he could barely support himself. What he really wanted to be was a writer, and he wrote this book, so I guess he made it. He should have done the research on what percent of published authors actually make a living from their writing. It's very low. Most of them have a "real" job.
January 21, 2021
A rather interesting read
I felt, at times, that the author was a selfish idiot who made one mistake after another. It seems he eventually found what he was looking for in spite of the fact that he didn't know he was looking for it.
I felt, at times, that the author was a selfish idiot who made one mistake after another. It seems he eventually found what he was looking for in spite of the fact that he didn't know he was looking for it.
July 30, 2021
Funny and so very real. Steven Barker puts into words what so many millennials and cuspers feel.
Each chapter felt like a short story or essay. Illustrating the world as it is now and how wildly different it is from that of our parents/baby boomers.
A must read
Each chapter felt like a short story or essay. Illustrating the world as it is now and how wildly different it is from that of our parents/baby boomers.
A must read
June 11, 2017
Interesting to see how he has accepted his part time work status for over 10+ years.
May 18, 2025
Shallow, entitled guy talks about his boring life.
August 10, 2017
Just found out that I won a copy of this book through Goodreads. Review to follow once the nbook has been received.
January 7, 2017
So relatable. I found comfort in this book, which seems to be about nothing and everything. I wanted to share the comfort with family members almost every few pages. I should probably just tell them to read the book themselves.
October 26, 2016
Review coming
January 28, 2019
A highly readable collection of experiences though rather disjointedly strung together at times. Barker has a mostly engaging and humorous style of expression, and there are several bits which are quite relatable. While he outlines some of the difficulties experienced in temping, his chosen approach often only skims the surface. He opts for a Bret Easton Ellis sort of apathetic narrative throughout, the rich kid ennui, which makes the entire read more closely resemble a deliberately concocted writing project versus the penning of a young man’s difficult and anxious struggle in temping to make ends meet. While it’s a tough read to take seriously, I still found myself invested in Barker’s storytelling.
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