Ah, MTV. Home of such classics as \Punk'd"" and ""Cribs,"" as well as other shows that are amusing but might leave you with the disturbing suspicion that Generation Y is growing more vapid by the half hour.
This is to be expected from TV, our world of mindless entertainment. But now, MTV mentality is expanding into an arena that previously provided some kind of safeguard for anti-""Real Worlders""- books.
At first, it seemed somewhat promising that MTV might be attempting to expand reader's minds instead of numbing them. But then came the book:??""The Alphabetical Hookup List."" If the reader's eyes wander further down the garish cover it gets worse: ""A-J.""
No joke. And if the reader thinks the title might mark a symbolic foray into the confusing plethora of relationships that make up a college experience, the reader is completely and utterly wrong.
This book is about three girls who make a pact to hook up with a member of the opposite sex for each letter of the alphabet. In order.
Here's the story (if it can be called that). Jodi, the cheerleading alcoholic and hopeful sorority sister; Celeste, the virgin with pot-smoking parents; and Ali, the free-spirit raver, get thrown into a triple dorm room in a wacky twist of fate. ??
At first they despise each other, but after a few days their respective guys dump them for other people.??Jodi's boorish high school sweetheart is caught entangled with another sorority sister, Celeste's stereotypically gay date is caught making out with another guy and Ali's DJ boyfriend finds another soulmate at a rave. ??
The simultaneous splits help the girls bond in a night that begins with tequila and a Scrabble board and ends with ""The Alphabet Hookup List"" as they spell out guys' names in Scrabble tiles.
Thus begins the adventure, where the girls go up and make out with random college boys, and an assortment that includes a couple of old guys in a retirement home and somehow, at another point, a chimpanzee.
The book delves into the absurd and disgusting when at one point, one girl even ponders kissing a corpse.??
And, they only make it to the letter J in this book.??
Reading from one ridiculous situation to the next, one had to wonder who the book is geared toward. Apart from the abundant swearing and offensive content, the book is on the low side of the reading level scale, probably aimed at middle or high schoolers looking for a taste of college life. ??
Instead, the reader gets something where the main characters feel like they are suddenly trapped in a bad episode of ""Undeclared,"" ??which about sums it up. ??
When a book's footnotes employ a level of sarcasm (aimed at the book) not actually found in the book itself, it is simple to grasp that it is not worth employing the level of brain activity needed to mentally follow along.
If mindless entertainment is what a reader is after, they should go watch an episode of ""Rich Girls"" instead.
