The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

I came across this book a while back but I really don't recall how. Probably in my feed aggregator. I bought it and just got around to reading it. I actually suggested it for my work's book club and they read it but I didn't have time to keep up with their schedule so I missed out on the conversations. I heard they were lively and involved.

Anyhow, it's a really good book. It's a quick read. Short. And it has a casual, effortless flow to it. With a title like, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck," you know the author is a bit irreverent and unconventional. Manson is younger than I am and evidently he's a "star blogger." Haven't read his blog though. Prolly not as good as Cürrent 451. I mean, does he have an umlaut in his blog?

The book is draws most of its content from Buddhism and Stoicism. Therefore, I could relate. Because it's so short and easy to read I think it'd be good to reread real quick and take notes. See how I could practically apply some of the content to work and life situations.

I suggested Marie read it cuz I think she'd get a lot of value from it.

Since I don't know a ton about Stoicism I picked up, "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius for $1 on Amazon. So I'm going to dig into that. Certainly won't be light reading, but it'll be something outside the norm for me cuz I don't really dig into much classical literature.

A few people ask me what books on Buddhism I recommend. Honestly, if you want to dip your toes in the water then then this is a good a place as any to start. If it makes sense and you want to learn more then I'd get into some real Buddhist literature.

T2 Trainspotting

I heard about Danny Boyle doing a follow up to Trainspotting over a decade ago. The second Irvine Welsh novel about these characters is called Porno, and it takes places ten years later. So Danny was supposed to make Porno with the same cast as a follow-up. It never happened. Evidently he decided to wait twenty years to make the sequel. Better late than never.

T2 is loosely based on the novel, Porno, but it deviates enough to the point that it becomes its own thing. I've read the novel so I could tell where he was inspired by it and where he ran off and did his own interpretation. After all, it's been twenty years now, not the original ten.

It's good. It's real good. When you make a sequel to movies like Trainspotting or Clerks you can't expect them to be better. They simply occupy a different time in space. And they can't re-write film history the way those two movies did. So all you can do is hope that it's a really fucking good movie. And thankfully T2 is a really fucking good movie.

It's very connected to the original with audio and visual flashbacks. Little homages here and there. Very self-referential. It's one of those flicks where you really have to have seen the first one to get it. And if you haven't seen Trainspotting by now...what the fuck?

Anyhoo, you should stream this on Amazon asap.