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.”