Read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck instead

For those who watch The Good Place, this book teaches how to be Eleanor at the start of season 1. Yes, she’s witty and makes for great TV, but also self-absorbed, shallow and deeply alone.

I found this book superficial, obvious and really quite sad. Describing choices purely from the perspective of how they can make (just) you ‘happy’ by only doing things that ‘spark joy’ (come on now, are you 7?) and be seen to be a nice person... rather than - you know - actually being one.

If you want this, well, each to their own.

If you want something more meaningful and that improves how you connect with other people and life, then I’d recommend Mark Manson’s similarly titled (but polar opposite) The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

15 people found this helpful

Boring and repetitive

Boring and repetitive, same idea over and over, very little examples are useful. Just watch the Tedx talk instead of full book

12 people found this helpful

Awful and I don’t give a f*** about saying that.

Just dreadful - a horrible person dispensing common sense as some kind of in-depth advice. Honestly, anyone with half a brain who doesn’t work for women’s magazines and believes everything in said magazines should already absolutely know this stuff given that it’s a fundamental part of maturing. Also, the swearing is just absolutely tedious. I know it’s in the title but did it really need to be reappeared so often? I teach my students that repeating yourself is uninteresting to the reader and that’s exactly what happens here. This might have been a great essay for teenagers and immature people who are still far too concerned with what other people think, primarily because they view themselves as existing absolutely at the centre of the lives of everyone they know. However, it isn’t worth the read for anyone with any sense of self worth who already values their own opinion and doesn’t see themselves at the centre of the world of everyone else’s world. Also, she really really isn’t funny.

9 people found this helpful

sorry i could not listen to anymore Fs

Any additional comments?

i had high hopes for this for this book after reading the summary, but.......
all i can say is it feels like it has been written by one of the characters from Sex and The City............me, me,me,me, moan, moan moan
Its also my own fault i should have guessed from the title but she uses the F word practically every other word and afterwhile it really starts to grate.
On the positive it kind of worked, as whilts she was going on and on F this and F that and not F'ing wasting your time on things you don't care, I thought yes she is right and stopped listening

113 people found this helpful

File Under "What the **** was I thinking about?"

It's obvious from the title where this one was going but when it came up cheap I thought "Why not?". It doesn't take a long journey into this book to categorically answer that question. It's not that I mind the f-word or worse in books or films, that doesn't phase me. For example I think it's use at the start of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is genuinely funny..

Here though it just gets trotted out over and over and over and over again in a book that teaches a mix of the blatantly obvious and expands it to try to make modern selfishness a kind of virtue.

If you need that kind of instruction in being mildly obnoxious and think it's the kind of life and attitude that you would be happy with then jump right in. In truth though there is nothing big and clever about this and personally I would recommend avoiding it.

I'm going to file this one safely in the right place and consider it a lesson learned.

39 people found this helpful

Best realistic advice

Loved this audiobook! The advice is so easy to understand and so realistic - a ridiculous number of times I sat there thinking "I definitely do that". I found myself applying the methods early on without fully realising! Think this will be an audiobook I come back to again and again just for a gentle reminder.

7 people found this helpful

I laughed a great deal.

Any additional comments?

This is really funny. I think the narration really makes it. Some sound and basic wisdom delivered brilliantly by the author's narration.

10 people found this helpful

I want that time back

Life is short. I just wasted my time on a book that can be summed up in 5 minutes. I get it that you shouldn't waste your time doing things you don't want to, but the fuck joke wears thin after 2 minutes

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant book

I enjoyed this book and I hope you do too.... But if you don't, I don't give a .... See, it works :-)

11 people found this helpful

And no f**ks were given

such a simple yet untapped word/emotion that can make us change so easily.

it's amazing how many other books come with theories and methodologies that take up soo much mental space and practice that one must ask themselves "is this even working?" before going and looking for that simple yet unspoken solution.

instead of looking what you should be doing right sometimes it's better to look where you are doing wrong and just not spend any more energy - and the best part: most of us can actually smile while doing such thing while uttering "f**k it"

imagine now taking control over your life while basically redirecting all that stress/clutter into one single word and punch out that annoying thing "society" wants you to do... because God knows how many other thousand things you need to do with offending anyone in this day and age

14 people found this helpful