This is a most precise insight - a deal in which an inanimate object is supposed to grant you with inner peace is by definition a fraud. It might be a puritanical stance, but I truely believe that if books can help with our inner peace at all, we'll have to keep reading for the rest of our lives.
What is the meaning of the first exercise? Is it a form of separating between the objects of the senses and the attached meaning we give to them? Jordan Peterson wrote about this in his book, he says that we first notice the "useful meaning" of objects and their sensual information much later, if at all. That too me by surprise and it's something to ponder about.
Much of luck in your endeavour, I will try to follow along.
Edit: I always wandered off they made that ugly cover on purpose, what do you think?
I have a feeling that the first exercise is there to reveal that we're swimming in an endless stream of meanings and that it is futile to try and remove that spell, maybe because that's what the mind is for..