books: Up For Renewal by Cathy Alter

Do you follow the advice of magazines? In her soon-to-be-released book, Up For Renewal, writer Cathy Alter chronicles her year-long social experiment of using magazines as her guiding force in life. I'll spare you the book review – I just wanted to point out the fascinating premise:

"Cathy gave over her life to the glossies for the next twelve months, resolving to follow their advice without question. By the end of her subscriptions, she would get rid of upper-arm jiggle, crawl out of debt, host the perfect dinner party, run a mile without puking, engage in better bathtub booty, ask for a raise, and rehaul her apartment."

The book reminded me that, although I always take magazine advice with a grain of salt or adapt it to my own purposes, some people out there must blindly follow the counsel of service journalism. When packaging content, reducing solutions to 10 easy steps, perhaps it would do us well to consider this. I wonder, is it reckless of us not to?