Sincerely Yours

In all the years I’ve worked at the library, I’ve seen probably hundreds of self help books. Like the ever-present dieting/nutritional books, there are many that seem to me to offer some good advice and techniques. There are some I found rather strange or even objectionable (The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan being the most memorable title). Recently I took a look at The Church of 80% Sincerity by David Roche and I was positively tickled with it!

There is, of course, no real church involved here. When Mr. Roche began to talk about his facial disfigurement as a speaker/performer, he began to stop pretending he was normal. But being raised a Roman Catholic in the 50’s, he felt he “needed an institution with rules to tell me how to behave and dogma to tell me what to believe.” So he made it up – the church of choice for recovering perfectionists.

The principle, as explained by “the beloved founder” of the church, is that 80% Sincerity is “as good as it gets (Especially in an election year). You can be 80 percent sincere 100 percent of the time, or 100 percent sincere 80 percent of the time.”

This book is funny… This book is short… I won’t call this book inspiring…because that would imply that the author wants you to go out and do something different/better/whatever. He doesn’t.

JM