You Might Be A Good Writer, If...

A review of David L. Anders You Might Be a Problem Drinker If... (Peachtree City, GA: David Anders Publishing House, 2011) 
109 pp $6.99 ISBN-13: 9780615448503 ISBN-10: 061545125X 
Reviewed by: Forrest W. Schultz

If you can create an appropriate attention-grabbing title for your book, you might be a good writer! If you can devise an interesting new format for presenting your thoughts, you might be a good writer. Dr. David Anders in the two books under review here has fulfilled both these criteria.

The titles, as I guess about 95% of Americans would know, are a take-off on Jeff Foxworthy's famous, "You Might Be A Redneck, If...". They are also the creative format. Each page contains one such gem. My favorite is the first one on the first page: "You Might Be A Problem Drinker, If You Pay More In Liquor Tax Than Income Tax.". Each of the two books contains 104 such one-liners.

At the rear of each of the two books is an announcement about at You Might Be A Problem Drinker, If...Contest, for those who would like to try their hand at composing some of their own. Information is available on the website www.AndersUSA.com.

Since these two books are humorous works, there may be some literary critics who might object to the addition of the serious discussions in the preface to each book, which bears this title: "Introduction, Explanations, Disclaimers, and Apology" -- wow!; all that in a preface. These critics can make a good argument for their case, and, frankly, I would have preferred just the comedy. But, you need to consider the fact that the author is a medical doctor: as a health care professional he feels obligated to teach us and warn us about the medical dangers of alcohol in the usual straightforward manner that is customary for his profession.

Dr. Anders and his wife and his mother have been writing for some time. Last year he established the David Anders Publishing House, which so far this year has published six of these books.