The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

What's in a title? Ha ha. Last month, Books & Beer Club was selecting an inspirational book to read for our November meeting. November is the month we read inspirational books. I googled "inspirational books for book clubs" and this book showed up on two lists. I even made a joke about it. Two latecomers showed up after I'd already mentioned this title and made my joke. So they had no idea we'd already laughingly tossed this around. One of them said that a friend of hers had read the book and really liked it. That it's a popular book and maybe we should read it. And that's how this month's book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson was selected.

I think we're going to have a good discussion tonight. But I'm really on the fence about how I feel about this book. Is it a self-help book? Is it simply Mark Manson's memoir? And is it inspirational?

Manson makes lots of really good points about picking your battles, prioritizing in life. He repeatedly brings up entitlement. And while I agree with what he says about entitled people (clarifying that there are both negative and positive senses of entitlement), I had some trouble reading this knowing that someone my son's age is handing out this type of advice. And I'm still confounded about how Manson became an expert. Maybe I resent that he gets to make his living blogging and speaking, something that I might have preferred doing over what I actually ended up doing over the years. I'm not sure.

Not only that, but he had some really horrendous fails before he "came out on top."

There was nothing earth shattering in this book. Lots of commonsense life lessons that I learned over time. Lessons that I believe you need to experience rather than simply hear about, especially if you're young. But I did enjoy some of the anecdotes that he used to make his points.

Would I recommend this book? I'm not sure. I'm really not sure who Manson's targeted audience is supposed to be. If we have a good discussion at book club tonight, I'll highly recommend it for book clubs. Otherwise, I'm really not sure how I feel. Sorry.