How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by…

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (original 2001; edition 2001)

by Toby Young

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,019	17	20,215	(3.03)	17
In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at 'Vanity Fair'. Other Brits had taken Manhattan - Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour - so why couldn't he?But things didn't quite go according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from 'Vanity Fair', banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him. 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is also a "nastily funny read." - 'USA Today'… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	spinphase
Title:	How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Authors:	Toby Young
Info:	Little Brown (2001), Paperback
Collections:	Wishlist
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People by Toby Young (2001)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

MuhammedSalem, SHC_Library, teenybeanie25, HildadeGaris, skooter34, r2v2, kitcaswe, nessie_arduin, mellylaughs

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

None

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 17 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (16) Thingamabrarian (the ideal language) (1) All languages (17)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)

Oh the things an unemployed librarian with newly-found time will pick up to read... Still, the fact that I finished it with such gusto says something. It was an interesting peek into a world I'll never live in. (

)

mimo | Dec 18, 2023 |

I put this down to read something else and found I wasn't really interested in finishing it. Not that it was bad, it just didn't grab me. (

)

jlweiss | Apr 23, 2021 |

Not my subject matter of choice, but the writing is well above average. (

)

Adammmmm | Sep 10, 2019 |

Grayden Carter is fraud, should be the subtitle of this book. (I don't know Mr. Carter and I don't care about Mr. Carter; I'm only passing along what the book makes no secrets about sharing with its reader.) Still, Toby Young charms. He's a very funny writer. Also, his father is apparently the originator of the cognate "meritocracy", to describe our political system. Check it out! (

)

evamat72 | Mar 31, 2016 |

So, I didn't actually finish this. I pulled the plug at 172 because this man is such an unmitigated asshole I simply did not want to spend another moment with him. Even if Young were an interesting giant, horny, and surly toddler (and he is not, though he has some interesting experiences) this would have been no fun. To enjoy this you have to want to ride shotgun with Young, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. 1 1/2 stars instead of 1 because there are some funny stories well told. (

)

Narshkite | Oct 19, 2014 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 16 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (2 possible)

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Swedish)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

Original title

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People: A Memoir

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2001

People/Characters

Toby Young

Important places

New York, New York, USA

Important events

Epigraph

Dedication

To Caroline

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (memoir)

Morgan Murphy (food critic)

▾Book descriptions

In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at 'Vanity Fair'. Other Brits had taken Manhattan - Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour - so why couldn't he?But things didn't quite go according to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from 'Vanity Fair', banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him. 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is also a "nastily funny read." - 'USA Today'

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary