Don't allow an offensive title put you off reading a good book.
This review is primarily addressed to a tiny majority of the general public that still find foul language offensive. If you don't belong to that group you can go straight to the last three paragraphs.
Although I have been swearing my whole life despite having a fairly strict christian upbringing I still hate when that kind of language comes out of my mouth because it's another reminder of my own inability and weakness to control my vocal chords.
It also reminds me of my still limited knowledge of my native tongue “the Queen's English” (O.K., O.K. ‘The King's English’ then ) where from childhood I have always had access to the primary language sources used in our U.K. based educational institutions, such as the Oxford, Cambridge and Macmillans dictionaries where words can be found to express virtually every conceivable emotion of disgust, anger and disappointment with the same intensity as our usual ‘one word fits all' ‘f-word usage. Words once released from my mouth, once again reminding of yet an additional negative factor on top of the initial reason for my anger in the first place: my ongoing deficiency, ignorance and my seeming unwillingness to improve my knowledge and mastery of my native tongue.
So anything that draws attention to this tends to interfere with my periodic positive mood, feeling somewhat o.k. about myself, zen moments. So I had to fight my initial adverse reaction to the title of this book.
The book did not disappoint … if you choose to;
'judge a book by its cover”
….. as regards the kind of language you expect to find within this book. If you want to learn to swear then this book is a great read. ….. but I hasten to add that's where the similarity ends.
Right from the ‘f-word’ drenched first chapter I instantly knew I had to read the whole book. The F-words already started to blur as its very powerful underlying message started to come into focus.
Yes this may mean having;
‘to wash your mouth out with soap and water’
afterwards to eradicate those profane words out of your head, but the taste of pure truths and awesome value still cleaving to your tongue and palate that gets gradually digested into your mind, heart and soul will only enrich your life, adding even more value and moral fiber to it.
In fact even the ‘hard core’, 'die hard' ‘every other f-word’ mouthing tough guys and women, who really ‘don't give a f*ck’ about anybody or anything and possibly believe this book will somehow validate their approach to life … will actually be very disappointed.
Its baseline message is the very opposite of what its title seems to be suggesting. It's not about not caring at all, it's about being very selective in what we choose to care about while completely blotting out the trivial superficial stuff that our culture, traditions, fads and trends place so much emphasis and focus on, brainwashing us into believing that that stuff really matters. This book is another wake up call to tell humanity that it doesn't, while the things that we tend to put in second, third and fourth place do matter and should always be our priority in first place.
His life observations are profound, his practical common sense approach is awesome and the core theme of this book is something the whole of mankind needs to hear, way beyond the 16 million persons that have already read and embraced this book.
Never judge a book by its cover (....even when the same words are found within its pages)
https://markmanson.net/books/subtle-art