'Rejection' book offers a bit of humor

So when it comes to my first resolution to read more books this year, I've been doing a lot better at reading book reviews and compiling a list of books I might want to read in the future than doing the actual reading. I took a break and read two books last month - and now I am three months behind on my New Yorker magazines so I decided to take a little break again from the long-form materials.

I do read a lot of book reviews - some in the New Yorker, some in People Magazine and some in whatever other magazines I read while doing cardio at the gym. I've noticed that People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and some other popular magazines all tend to run reviews of the same books. The New Yorker rarely offer reports on anything that is quite so mainstream and popular.

One of the recent book plugs in People is for one called "Other People's Rejection Letters" and it is edited by Bill Shapiro. At first, I thought it seemed like kind of a mean idea - poking fun at other people's lowest moments. After all, it's hard not to take any rejection a little personal. The few letters used by People's writers to illustrate the book are written by children - to a mother and a grandmother. One is just a kid saying they can't go with grandma because they have other plans and it's pretty funny seeing it in the large print of a young child's handwriting.

I guess rejection is sort of a universal thing. I know I have had my share of it - from friends who back out of plans, to breakups, to getting the brush off from a potential employer. I've gotten rejected by voicemail for a job I had already decided not to take. I've gotten e-mails, handwritten letters and in this new digital age I am sure I will eventually get rejected by text. The thing about rejection is that it smarts in the moment, but I have to say that most of my rejections end up to be funny stories down the road.

There was the rejection by my first sort of boyfriend, with whom I never really got past the "hanging out" phase when I was fifteen. After two-intense weeks of talking on the phone, holding hands and a kiss or two, he wrote me a short letter about how we needed to stop "hanging out" because of our different views on alcohol. It was news to me as we were 15 and the topic had never come up between us. Of course, the most recent time I saw him a couple years ago, he was pretty heavy into drinking so maybe he was right way back then.

And just a few months ago I reconnected with a former coworker on Facebook. We exchanged a few messages and all seemed well. In my last message to him I said if he ever wanted to catch a movie to let me know because I write a weekly movie column for the Pinnacle. And he never responded back. Message received.

Perhaps the book is really just a way to help everyone find a little humor in their past rejections and to realize that it really is a universal experience. It sucks to go through it, but I guess the optimistic way to look at it is that by risking the rejection we can end up with great opportunities, in love and jobs, and whatever else.

I haven't added the book to my to-read list yet, but I might get to it someday. After all, I'd hate to make editor Bill Shapiro.