Spare. Anyone reading this?

I read it and like it. I like Harry and have a lot of empathy for what he’s been through.

I originally loved Harry, and Meghan, but I’ve definitely soured on them over the last few years. I am listening to this audiobook right now too and I will say I am enjoying it. I’m at the part where he and Meghan are dating and it’s just broken in the press.

I am taking it with a grain of salt and don’t believe everything he’s written, but it’s interesting. Also gives some good insight into how the family relationship has evolved as it has.

I listened to it a while back and I mostly consider it 16 hours of my life I won’t get back. They could have saved an hour if he didn’t have to introduce 200+ chapters.

I thought it was poorly edited and he got lost in the weeds a bit with the details. The chapters sometimes ended at weird spots and there was so much nonsense and whining. He included that time William accused him of snoring…oh my goodness the travesty!!! 🙄 It felt like a book of ways people wronged him or slighted him in some ways.

I found the chapters on his military training and work in Africa interesting. The parts about poaching made me cry.

I read it a while back. I'm like you, OP, I don't really follow the royals and I don't have as much hate for Harry as a lot of people on the board seem to. I read it because I thought it might be interesting to peer behind the curtain if you will. I did enjoy some portions of the book like his time in the military and the little interesting things that went on at his fancy boarding school. I remember one part where it's mentioned that the staff actually measured with tape measures the distance between the plates at the Queen's dinner table. That's the kind of stuff I wanted to read about!

I am the same age as Harry and my dad died one month earlier than his mom so I do have a lot of empathy for him on that end. Some of the things he wrote about regarding his grief really hit me because I could have written those passages myself. I experienced the exact same emotions and my mind processed the grief in the same way.

Reading about him losing his virginity didn't have much impact on me. You're reading about him growing up so it didn't shock me that he would mention it and I don't remember him speaking badly of the woman. The frozen todger part was a little cringe and a little funny all at the same time. It reminded me of a story a coworker might tell me about after going on vacation and something happened to their bits. I dunno, it just didn't seem all that inspiring of shock and horror like I felt I was supposed to feel after reading about people's reactions to it.

Overall I felt the book needed editing and was pretty dull. I didn't pay the $14.99 for it and I would recommend others don't pay for it either.

I tried reading the book but just couldn't get through it. I don't hate Harry and Megan but I certainly don't trust them. I think they are incredibly self-absorbed and far too often they speak before they think.

For instance, Harry, finally, two years after he made the accusation, confirmed that he doesn't think the royal family is racist simply because someone wondered what Archie would look like.

And the furor over the royal titles - they knew all along that it was nothing to do with Megan; it was protocol, in place for over a century. And if being part of the family causes them so much grief why the heck do they keep using those titles?

I think losing a parent when you are a child is incredibly difficult. I just wonder why people keep excusing his poor choices because he lost his mom as a teenager. William was also just a teen but the response has been quite different.

The phrase "an heir and a spare" has been around for centuries; to pretend otherwise is just an attempt to stir up controversy. Princess Anne and Prince Edward (we are going to ignore Andrew...) have lived as 'spares' their entire lives and have managed to create a purposeful and lasting legacy of public serivice, mostly out of the public eye.

Harry could do the same but he seems to enjoy the limelight, which is fine and his choice to make. I just tire of the constant "leave me alone/look at me" game he and Megan play.

I think if you know nothing about the royal family in the last 10 years, deciding this book is where you’ll get your information is probably going to not give you the whole picture. Being critical of someone’s public actions is not hate. Pointing out lies, by direct quote, photographic evidence, and court proceedings, is not hate. Calling out privileged people for their privilege is pretty standard in the word today and is not hate.

Harry and Meghan would not get the pushback (not hate) they do, if they just followed their own published goals for their future. Become private citizens, establish their financial independence, work on their foundation and philanthropy. The Oprah interview, the Netflix series, Harry’s book had nothing to do with them moving on, and everything to do with trying to clapback at any criticism they have received since forever.

I was shocked at the end of the Oprah interview when they didn’t lay out their plans for Archewell. Instead they said this was the last they would talk about the BRF and their time in it. And then they haven’t stopped bringing everything back to the BRF in the last three years.

I’d love to believe they are out there living their best lives, but their own words and actions show us differently. My opinion of them based their own never ending fumbles. It’s too bad, they had the world at their feet and can’t seem to get out of their own way.

I checked it out of my local library but didn't even read one page. There are so many more interesting books out there to read, why would I waste my time on this drivel most of which is probably lies? This morning I spent most of the early morning and part of the day reading the new biography that was just released about Corrie Ten Boom called "The Watchmaker's Daughter" by Larry Loftis. I started it last night and finished it today. It was wonderful. I first read "The Hiding Place" in the 1970's and have visited the Corrie Ten Boom museum in Haarlem, Netherlands twice. It was so inspiring to read once again about such a courageous, and religious family who truly loved and sacrificed for others. I'd much rather spend my time reading something like this than a book like "Spare". 

I have lost all respect for Harry and Meghan since they left the Royal family. 

I am on the waitlist for this audiobook and am looking forward to reading it. Like all autobiographies, you have to take it with a grain of salt, I suppose.