I am a happy, very well-adjusted adult who deeply believes that life is pointless. This understanding that I do not matter–and neither does anything else I love–hasn’t driven me to despair but rather liberated me. My nihilism is a tool to free me from corrosive messages of meaning, performance, consumption, and exploitation. It allows me to understand and love my life as a delicate, fleeting, lovely, and one-day forgotten thing. And with that perspective, I understand how precious it is.
People love saying books changed their lives, but I can confidently say this book altered my perception of reality. I was already a fan of Jia’s journalism, but this book illuminated my life in a way I never expected.
As a writer, I often think the best work hits you in that strange place before a feeling becomes a thought. It puts words to a sense you are carrying around but haven’t articulated yet. This book did that to me more than anything I’ve ever read. It didn’t ease my anxieties, but it explained why I felt the way I did and made me feel less alone (and a bit smarter).
It finally explained to me what everyone was talking about when they blatantly blamed “capitalism” for all their problems.
A Times book of the year
A Guardian book of the year
'Magnificent'The Times
'Dazzling' New Statesman
'It filled me with hope' Zadie Smith
What happens to our behaviour when we live most of our lives online? What does it mean to 'always be optimising'? And what is it about scams and the millennial generation?
Offering nuanced and witty reflections on feminism, reality TV, the internet, drugs, identity and more, Trick Mirror is a multifaceted, thought-provoking and entertaining response to our zeitgeist - a must-read for anyone interested in the way we live and think today.
Fun fact: I wrote my book while recovering from a period of intense work burnout that someone more dramatic could call a nervous breakdown. During that time, I was coming to terms with the fact the job I love has broken my brain and likely made it very easy for other people to exploit me.
I read this book during this period, and it helped me understand not only how toxic but also how unnecessary our relationship with work was. It helped me detangle my identity from employment and realize that a job is just a part of my life–not the whole thing.
It helped free me from the dreaded “hustle culture.”
'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones 'Explosive' John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year 'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times
Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.
In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but…
Gifts from a Challenging Childhood
by
Jan Bergstrom,
Learn to understand and work with your childhood wounds. Do you feel like old wounds or trauma from your childhood keep showing up today? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with what to do about it and where to start? If so, this book will help you travel down a path…
I read the two previous books when I was working to strip a lot of negative forces out of my life. They opened my eyes to how power holders manipulated my desires to convince me that their exploitative version of the world was in my best interest. It was one thing to reject that hierarchy of ideas around money, status, power, and attention; it was another to embrace the void they left.
Odell helped me embrace the space. This book allowed me to reflect on the way I’d been taught that endless growth and productivity were the only way to live. It invited me to consider a slower, quieter, life–and enriched the interest in emptiness that became my love of nihilism.
It helped me slow down, see the small things, relax and enjoy the beautiful parts of my life i was usually too busy to appreciate.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library
"A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review
One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019" Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year
It has become very fashionable to talk about capitalism and how it grinds us down as individuals. But this singular view of ourselves as lone victims is arguably its biggest trick. The truth is that the unchecked greed and growth that hurt us are hurting the planet most of all.
No one understands and can explain this, like journalist (and my hero) Naomi Klein. She’s always reported on the dangers of greed, consumption, globalization, and unchecked growth. But in recent years, she’s centered on how all these big, scary ideas converge to harm the planet. This book is tiny and it’s a digestible introduction to her writing and ideas.
It’s a book about the environment you will not only understand but actually finish reading.
In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.
In Hot Money Naomi Klein lays out the evidence that deregulated capitalism is waging war on the climate, and shows that, in order to stop the damage, we must change everything we think about how our world is run.
Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through…
Gifts from a Challenging Childhood
by
Jan Bergstrom,
Learn to understand and work with your childhood wounds. Do you feel like old wounds or trauma from your childhood keep showing up today? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with what to do about it and where to start? If so, this book will help you travel down a path…
I’m aware that all my recommendations are loaded with pretty big ideas about identity, exploitation, greed, and (hopefully) personal redemption. I love reading about this stuff, but it’s probably not surprising that I’ve been returning to this book every few years since I was a teenager. It’s my all-time favorite, and I’ve found over the decades, its meaning has grown with me.
When I returned to it most recently, I found a humbling reminder of personal impermanence. The way our lives, even in their greatest moments, will ultimately be forgotten. And a warning of what we can lose in the moment when we live either hypnotized by the promise of the future or embittered over the injustice of the past.
As a nihilist, I can’t go past a book about the beauty and ultimate pointlessness of life.
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
Career success, a beautiful life, a beautiful Instagram account—what's the point? In a world where meaning has become twisted into a form of currency that everyone is very keen to cash in on, I invite you to change the way you think about the way you think.
In my seminal work, I present optimism in Nihilism, encouraging us to dismantle our self-care and self-centered way of living and accept a life that is more or less ordinary. I re-examine the meaning of worth, value, time, happiness, success, and connection and guide us toward the alternative path of pointless pleasure.
