The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

I get it. You’re thinking of picking this one up and having a good laugh, watching the tired tropes of self-help gurus get lampooned and torn to pieces. Well, you will get that here. You’ll get plenty of laughs as Mark Manson tells you not to give a crap about all the things we’re told endlessly to care about. But you’d be very wrong to think Manson’s insights end there. Beyond the flippancy and curse words that festoon the opening pages of the book, there is a wealth of perspective.

In one section, Manson brilliantly encapsulates the modern social media experience–how we’re constantly exposed to the absolute best and absolute worst, so our perspective is skewed toward those extremes. While in other sections he discusses how we can be manipulated, even by ourselves, to say nothing of friends, family, and societal expectations. (Another gem is the chapter on choice and how we’re responsible for our choices in all cases; it’s a tough read, but a very worthwhile one.)

This is pure insight, hard-won and distilled into easily parsed samples waiting for you to partake of. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck may not be subtle, but it truly is art.