Tag: humor

RATING: ✖✖✖

The self-described ‘counterintuitive approach to living a good life’, this is the author’s 2016 ‘self-help’ novel intended to help you make your life better — by caring about it … less?

SYNOPSIS: In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor. 

I’m not a seasoned self-help book reader. Maybe it’s because I’m on the younger side of the age spectrum, or maybe it’s because I assume I somehow have my shit together, or maybe it’s because I haven’t really been interested in picking up any nonfiction book promising to change my life because I simply don’t believe they can. I have to admit, however, that the neon-orange warning-sign feel this cover gave me — and the stark approach of its title — intrigued me. It intrigued me to the point where I actually picked this book up and read it, and so here are my thoughts.

Here’s the thing: self-help books tread a fine line. You want to help the reader, but you also don’t want to make the reader feel like an idiot. You want to express a message, or an idea, but you don’t want it to come off in a preachy, know-it-all way. You want to help, sure, and that (in essence) should be ‘easy’ if you have a concrete concept and a solid way of expressing yourself.  The issue lies in the fact that not every reader requires the same ‘help’ — which is why self-help books really are up to the reader to interpret, and therefore hard to write because your solid idea might not be as solid to every one of your readers.

So, how did I interpret this book?

Continue reading “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson”