The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is a counterintuitive self-help guide that forces its reader to cut the crap and to face the facts – shit happens and we have to learn how to live with it.
Manson is raw in his honesty and shows us how to accept and embrace our life for what it truly is instead of trying to run away from it or fake feed ourselves with all out positive attitude.
It is a refreshing and entertaining read that conveys important messages in a light way.
When reading this book, readers need to understand that Manson doesn’t want you to stop giving a f$ck altogether, but to carefully choose what to give a f$ck about as your f$cks in life are limited.
To be happy we need something to solve. Happiness is therefore a form of action;
It’s one of those reads filled with little truths in life that some people may or may not already be aware of. Manson isn’t being radical – coming up with ideas of his own, but rather what he’s saying are already well established concepts. He uses his own life experiences to talk about those ideas and the book to me felt a little bit more like his biography than self-help book, it was quite personal.
As much as I enjoyed this read, I would be sceptical enough taking all of its advices. Some paragraphs were more memorable to me than others, however I don’t feel like Manson has enough of qualification or evidence for me to go all out and turn my life upside down according to his book. However, that’s not the point. I carefully picked and chose what suited me and I will further research the topics if need be. For that, this book is a nice introduction into how to live a more positive life by accepting the negatives.
The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience
It is hard to rate this read. If you look at it as an introductory self-help guide, it is doing its job. On the other hand, it is selfish in a way – there is no further reading, there is no evidence to back up what Manson is saying, all there really is, is his memoir. It doesn’t point you in any specific direction which it should in my opinion, if it was a real self-help book. It feels biased.
In my life, I have given a fuck about many people and many things. I have also not given a fuck about many people and many things. And like the road not taken, it was the fucks not given that made all the difference.
I wouldn’t go around recommending it but if someone wants to read it, I’d say go for it. You will either hate it, waste few hours as it is a very short read or it will prompt you to do the research on your own and try changing your life for the better. You can’t really loose.
Thank you for reading this review, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know down in the comment section.
Until next time, Dream On, Dreamers!
The Wolf Pad 