Quite an interesting premise: a rewritten, condensed version of Made to Crave; but so sorely needed for those of us who don’t have much time and a refresher of the original book is in order. Enter: i’ll start again monday.
Although a reader could definitely jump right into i’ll start again monday with no basis of Made to Crave, I read Made to Crave first (see my review) and have just now finished the condensed version. Oh, how I needed these reminders again.
i’ll start again monday: the short version
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Out of simple curiosity, I did a quick page comparison of Made to Crave and i’ll start again monday… because how could you not?
The verdict was that every numbered page of i’ll start again monday was a total of 140 pages. A quick, easy read that could be tackled in a day or less (provided you aren’t interrupted frequently). Every numbered page in Made to Crave totaled 218 pages. So while not a huge difference, it does make i’ll start again monday more accessible for people who don’t read much, or don’t have much time to devote to reading.
Did I Miss Much?
I did not read these books back to back so I don’t have as accurate a gauge of the differences as someone who has done that would have, however, I felt like the message and most of the major points in the two books remained the same.
With that being said, even with classics, I love to read the unabridged version first, before any other version… and the same is true for these two books. In my opinion, when a reader takes that approach they are more likely to get a feel for the author’s heart, and understand the message the author was trying to convey.
A prime example would be the classic book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Just watching the cartoon of the book, or reading an abridged version would not tell you that Hugo’s (the author’s) goal was to save the cathedral of Notre Dame, which (I believe) had been slated for destruction. (Spoiler alert: he succeeded). The unabridged classic has many sections devoted entirely to the cathedral, that completely ignore the story… because the story was simply a tool to save the cathedral.
In a similar vein, TerKeurst condensed i’ll start again monday (the tool) to help make her message more accessible to Christian women who needed her message but might not have time for the unabridged version.
Both of TerKeurst’s books are worth reading, whether you started with the original or the condensed version, and you’ll get the same basic message; it just depends (mostly) on your availability, interest, and time constraints which you might ultimately choose.
The Book Itself
With i’ll start again monday being the same basic message, you can read my review of Made to Crave and get the idea of the book with one major caveat: I found i’ll start again monday to mention sex less frequently than Made to Crave. That is NOT to say it doesn’t come up (it does) but it did seem less prevalent in mentions.
If you read one or both of these TerKeurst books, what were your thoughts? Was one truly better than the other, or just shorter? Let me know in the comments below!
Christian, wife, “hybrid” mama, I run the site All Behind A Smile to help others like me.
[…] struggle with unhealthy foods… and reading Lysa TerKeurst’s re-write of Made to Crave (i’ll start again monday) brought my attention back to the struggle that I thought had been excised from my […]