add me to the list of people who were taken in

It appears I fell for the proverbial hook, line and sinker on this one.

The Smoking Gun revealed yesterday that James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces is largely a work of fiction. The Smoking Gun article, A Million Little Lies, exposes the truth about James Frey's past and it appears he took quite a bit of dramatic license with his criminal past among other things.

I received this book as a Christmas present from a couple who, by their own admission, are not readers. After 45 minutes in a Barnes & Noble trying to figure out what I might enjoy they finally asked a clerk what the latest Oprah Book Club read was. They were handed A Million Little Pieces.

When they gave the book to me the apologized profusely because they didn't realize it was about a recovering addict until they were wrapping it. They were concerned I would be offended. I laughed and told them as long as it wasn't a self-help book about how to recover from an addiction I wasn't offended (truthfully, I was just thrilled to have an excuse for reading an adult book!).

Once I started the book I couldn't put it down. For the next 2 days I read the gripping "memoir." I even tried reading some of the more compelling parts out loud to Steven. (For those who've read it, he finally snapped at me to stop when I tried reading about the root canal done without anesthesia.) I was completely enthralled with this book. I didn't agree with James Frey's "I'm better than you" attitude or his mean-spirited-ness about the existence of a Higher Power but I gave him leeway. I decided that self-loathing yet self-righteous attitude was what helped him overcome his addiction and his past. Now it appears he is on a power trip. He really thought he was smarter than the whole rest of the world.

Come on, in today's world you have to know you're going to get caught if you tell lies this big!