Editor’s note:  I’m only half-way through this gift from my son, Tim, but it’s likely to make my top ten of all time.  I’d call it self-help with a humorous bent which taking on such an existential questioen requires to get through to me.  He aligns well with my thinking and now I must go read an earlier Burkeman book whose title reflects another longtime discomfort with Norman Vincent Peale and self-help in general.  It’s called, “The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking”. 

Favorite excerpt:   “The average human life span is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.”