2007, Books, Non-Fiction

Younger Next Year (2007) by Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge

This is a book about exercise, nutrition and mental health, geared towards retired American men. I did not actually finish the book; I read it until it was due back at the library. I made it most of the way through, though, and I don’t fee like I missed much.

This is not a great book. Crowley is insufferable – he’s that loud, American male who thinks highly of himself but who has just enough self-deprecation so you think maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t, who talks to you at parties where you never get to talk back before he moves on to someone else, who hasn’t adjusted to the times he’s living in in terms of way he speaks about women (or in how he uses slang) and who is basically just a poster child for why some people wouldn’t have liked his generation of white males. But I do think he’s genuine. And if you can get past his blowhardiness, he seems in earnest.

The doctor is better, but this book was written for a general audience and so the doctor treats the reader as if they have a high school education (likely the target audience…) and the attention span of a child. In doing so, he doesn’t ever really fully explain the science, so I couldn’t judge it like I wanted to.

That being said, there’s a lot here that is useful for aging men. Others have noted women already knew this stuff, but if you don’t know about the importance of exercise as you age, or the importance of nutrition, or the importance of mental well being, you will get that from this book, in spite of its authors.

And despite my dislike of the one author and my annoyance that the other author felt like he couldn’t trust his readers, this book inspired me to do something about my life. I am a long way from retirement, but I am not the most active person in the world. I also really, really, really love beer. I need to get my act together if I’m going to be able to continue enjoying beer while not gaining weight and I am hoping the information in this book is the way to do it.

Wish me luck.

6/10

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