Title: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK
“A Counterintuitive approach to living a good life”
#1 NYT Best Seller- over 5 million copies sold
Author: Mark Manson
Review:
For a very good reason, the very first night in my cell I found this book in my locker. A former prisoner left 4 books, this being one of them. There couldn’t have been a more perfect first book to read for a first times in prison, and I’m very grateful he did. So good in fact, that in order to make this book review do justice, this will be a summary review, followed by several deep-dive reviews on several of the chapters that really impacted me and may be helpful to you!
Setting aside the F-bombs, and there are quite a few, this book is really about how to live your life with perspective, focus, humbleness, and only giving an “F” about family. friends, and very important values based issues you care about. Everything else the book states, should be left alone and not stressed about, and one shouldn’t give a “F” about them. Obviously easier said than done!
One of the characteristics of this writer I appreciate is his use of real world examples of past events,people, incidents to relate his points to. Additionally I really like his “digs” at various socially prevalent topics, whether its “every kid gets a trophy” which he calls the self esteem movement failure,or all these “get rich or self help seminars” to become exceptional or rich, challenging the point that’s impossible for 100% of society to be either! And his chapter on “You are not special” does a great service attacking the entitlement mentality that has engulfed our society these past 30-40 years.
Manson’s final chapter puts a traffic punctuation point on everything related to not giving a “F” titled: “And then you die”.
As I said at the beginning, this is a book about keeping perspective and humility and focus on what’s important, and I cant think of a better way to do so, than the last chapter, especially at my age of 64+!BJ
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