The Harm in Asking

 Book 6 of my 2026 Reading Challenge

read from January 5 - 9

The Harm in Asking: 

My Clumsy Encounters with the Human Race

by Sara Barron

published 2014

1 star

This book has been on my TBR since 2014 and I finally got around to reading it.  I acknowledge I'm a tougher critic on personal essays than I was back then but I don't think I would've liked it even if I'd read it right away.

Strike 1:  More than one casual use of the 'r' word which is an automatic red flag for me and left me thinking it would be probably be a 2 star read.

Strike 2:  Referred to someone as "her molester" more than once in a situation she described as him yelling at her to leave a party after she drunkenly fell on someone else.  That's pretty aggressive language.  At that point I thought maybe I'd hit an unfortunate stretch of pages (the first 'r' word was right around this time too) but it would bounce back to the "meh, it's fine" read I'd had so far.

Strike 3:  Too many stories that are presented as her being real and authentic but just seem mean.  Racing an obese woman to a seat on the subway "having figured it'd be good for her to have to stand"?  Obnoxiously farting (yes it happens but again, it was presented in a way that almost seemed like she was weaponizing it)?  So many judgements about other people?

I can usually overlook "shock" if it's funny but Strike 4 (that's how sports work, right?): I wasn't amused.

*******************************

Ways This Book Met my 2026 Reading Goals:

- 6th book read in 2026 (my goal is 100)

- A book I received for Christmas 2025 (my goal is to read all my Christmas 2025 books by the end of 2026)

- A book I own that is leaving my house for a new reader to find (my goal is to declutter and make progress on whittling down my shelves/boxes of books in my house)

- Title starting with 'H' (I'm doing an A-Z title challenge)