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anyagt's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed Day’s writing style, How to Fail examines the act of failure in all parts of life, with themed chapters including Tests, Family, and Career. Part memoir, part self-help, and supported by snippets from interviews Day has conducted with various celebrities over the years, the book covers the way failure impacts us and how we can re-frame it to reach success. It’s an important topic and no doubt helpful for many but failure is subjective, and for me, the analysis was shallow and too dripping in privilege to be interesting. My inability to connect with the author's voice meant I took very little away from this book, the reflections I have heard many times before by people-pleasing perfectionists. Ultimately, I think I'm just incredibly envious of this level of 'failure'.
allysadventuresinbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to the audiobook on audible, read by the author.
Really wonderful insights in this book, definitely would recommend reading it!
Really wonderful insights in this book, definitely would recommend reading it!
ivi_reads_books's review against another edition
More an article than a scientific book
stellahadz's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
This book is equal parts memoir and self-help; if you go in expecting exclusively one or the other you'll likely be disappointed. In some aspects, How To Fail isn't particularly groundbreaking - it expresses ideas that have been expressed before in other media, including Day's own podcast, but that is not to say that it is badly written or not worth the read. Some parts resonated deeply with me - for instance, the chapter in which she talked about failing her driving test and feeling like a fish out of water after finishing school because "[i]n adulthood, no one gives you marks for getting the answer right." Other parts made me roll my eyes a bit - not all of us have the means to go on a yoga retreat in Morocco to cope with a bad breakup - but then again, it's not the author's job to be relatable to every single reader, it's her job to share what she's learned from her own experiences. Day isn't afraid to discuss her experiences with infertility, sexual harassment, and divorce, and I commend her for her willingness to address these topics from her own perspective.
Not all of it was for me, but I can see this book being helpful to people dealing with similar issues as Day, and more generally to younger adults wanting to start engaging with self-help literature.
Not all of it was for me, but I can see this book being helpful to people dealing with similar issues as Day, and more generally to younger adults wanting to start engaging with self-help literature.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Medical content, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Bullying and Sexual harassment
Minor: Domestic abuse
sumo98's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
I really enjoyed this book, I prefer friendaholic, but how to fail was still very thought provoking and refreshing to to read.
jennyennydots's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
4.0
annabelws23's review against another edition
4.0
Elizabeth Day’s ‘How to Fail’ podcast has been beyond helpful this past year. The book accompaniment is essentially a longer version of the final episode of season 1, where Elizabeth turns the focus upon herself and explores her own failures. In this book she goes much deeper into these failures, and gives a memoir esque account of her life. (I say esque, because the book is not simply reducible to the category of ‘memoir’, nor can it be classified as ‘self-help’). She acknowledges that she lives a life of privilege and the failures in her life have been framed from this perspective. Her accounts on motherhood, fertility and a child free life I found particularly poignant. The book was a lot more feminist than I expected. Albeit feminist from a privileged perspective.
I would say that I prefer the format of the podcast, the conversational nature being one of its biggest assets. It’s the human connection between two people discussing the nitty gritty of their lives, being open and honest about their failures and how that has shaped them, which makes the podcast so special. While the book was conversational in tone, it naturally was not a dialogue in the same sense. The book does rely on revisiting the accounts of past guests to illustrate certain points, and parts of these podcasts are quoted verbatim (or if you listen to the audiobook, like me, you get the clips of the podcast played back to you.) This was a nice book to listen to while doing my lockdown embroidery, both of which gave me a reprieve from my anxiety. I found it useful to revisit some of the earlier episodes which I had forgotten bits of, and the book has got me back into listening to it as I had stopped for a while.
I would say that I prefer the format of the podcast, the conversational nature being one of its biggest assets. It’s the human connection between two people discussing the nitty gritty of their lives, being open and honest about their failures and how that has shaped them, which makes the podcast so special. While the book was conversational in tone, it naturally was not a dialogue in the same sense. The book does rely on revisiting the accounts of past guests to illustrate certain points, and parts of these podcasts are quoted verbatim (or if you listen to the audiobook, like me, you get the clips of the podcast played back to you.) This was a nice book to listen to while doing my lockdown embroidery, both of which gave me a reprieve from my anxiety. I found it useful to revisit some of the earlier episodes which I had forgotten bits of, and the book has got me back into listening to it as I had stopped for a while.
always_need_more_books's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
frannymuzza's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Inspiring book discussing failure giving insight into a wide range of people’s challenges in life