A review by anyagt
How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day

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'.