cover image The Joy of Worry

The Joy of Worry

Ellis Weiner. Chronicle Books, $14.95 (149pp) ISBN 978-0-8118-4139-9

""Worry is fear harnessed to imagination."" With this brilliant re-definition of an old bugaboo, Weiner begins this perfectly pitched spoof of the lifestyle how-to. The New Yorker and National Lampoon writer""has been apprehensive most of his life,"" notes his publisher, thus he knows whereof he writes. The""motivational"" text is accompanied by sidebars delineating types of worry (fretting, brooding, etc.) and the number of calories burned by worrying about particular things (e.g., 311 calories burned for worrying about destruction of the ozone layer). You can, Weiner shows, worry your way to wealth and health, not to mention happiness. So if you're worried about your worrying (too much? not enough?), relax and have a laugh with this book instead.