Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 24, 2013 mehg-hen added it

Shelves: cantdoitcantfinish, existentialcrisis

I have a hot button that I have yet to identify which is making me bail on books.

I have bailed on this book, which I purchased at full retail price in a bookstore. It remains on my nightstand. I am a fan of Kelly William Brown's tumblr and was generally very excited about this book and every time I drop something, I clean it up, expressly because of her book. By every time, I mean 68%. This is an increase. Actually, it's more like 52%. That is an increase.

I would like to write a companion book c I have a hot button that I have yet to identify which is making me bail on books.

I have bailed on this book, which I purchased at full retail price in a bookstore. It remains on my nightstand. I am a fan of Kelly William Brown's tumblr and was generally very excited about this book and every time I drop something, I clean it up, expressly because of her book. By every time, I mean 68%. This is an increase. Actually, it's more like 52%. That is an increase.

I would like to write a companion book called "when shit is a mess." Or like Beyond Adulting: When Your Plans Get Fucked. Or like Adulting Plus: How To Forgive Things When You Do Them Totally Wrong, i.e. Sometimes Rules Are Aspirations Disguised. Or like "How to Ruin Your life." Or maybe I am reading it and hoping that it will be Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" but without the depressing parts.

Certain parts like "you will make more money" and expecting that to happen in your thirties flies directly in the face of my actual human experience and feels like I am standing in Siberia and have TB. This likely indicates I need to have dinner with someone I enjoy who tells good jokes and not take books I can't finish that seriously and/or that I am really excited to read rules and/or a narcissist because who cares.

Tread lightly with rules on your little bodies and minds. If I was a benevolent giant that farted but gave good advice and talked in a very quiet voice so people had to scale me to hear what I said, that's what I would say. Then I would bless them with a tear and they could relax in my lip.

My biggest hassle in being an adult is making peace with shit experiences and the complicated power dynamics in the world and stormy desires to sit in a closet and chainsmoke, i.e. the shades of grey everywhere. Also shakily believing that things are all right. Maybe I just wanted this book to say "leave your apartment" over and over and "you have catastrophe fantasies because you have an overactive imagination and it's a handy way to avoid things."

feeeeeeeeliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings ...more

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Mar 18, 2016 Becki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, humor, favorites

A delightfully foul-mouthed Hints from Heloise for millennials. Life hacks range from the seemingly obvious (Step 256: Don't put tacos in your purse) to the profound (Step 327: Accept that heartbreak is inevitable, and realize that the only way to be a human being is to experience it at least once); as Kelly Williams Brown explains in the introduction, "There are certain parts of being a grown-up that come easily to us, and some that...don't." Even if you're the most grown-up grownup you know, t ...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Journeywoman rated it really liked it

Shelves: w-50-new-books-in-2013

If you are looking for a book for the graduate on your list--look no further. This is it.

This is a book about becoming an adult, the rights and responsibilities. How to make your way without your parents.

I can't recommend it enough. ...more

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Jan 10, 2017 Rafael Eaton rated it liked it

My younger sister had this book and I was intrigued and wanted to see if it'd be a good fit for the library. In all, good advice for the late-teens to twenties crowd, and some that I still haven't taken to heart (and will try to). ...more

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