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(e)Book – Love and friendship

  (e) Book –  Love and friendship Full title :  Love and friendship and other early works Author : Jane Austen Score : /10 Year : 1790 (original) ; 2012 (this edition) Publisher : Duke Classics   ISBN  978-1-62012-155-9  // 9781620121559  (ebook)  Pages :  Language: English Jane Austen is best known for her 6 novels, which all have been adapted into tv movies - but after having read Virginia Woolf's short fiction in chronological order, I decided to apply the same for Austen's publications, to better appreciate her growth and evolution in narrative style. So, before reading her novels which were released from 1811 to 1817, in the following order :  Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma,  Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, I decided to go back to her teenage years, reading Love and Friendships, and other early works.

(e)Book – The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k



    (e)Book –  The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k

Author:  Sarah Knight

Score: 4/10
Year: 2015 (original and this edition) 
Publisher:  Little, Brown and Commany
ISBN 9780316270731978-03162-7073-1
Pages 134* 

Set as a  practical parody of Marie Kondo's bestseller "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up", Sarah Knight's Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k adapts the need to get rid of items that don't give us joy into a series of introspected lists of things, situations and people that stress us out, causing overbooking and overwhelming life, about which we should stop giving a fuck (stop caring). 

The process is about finding out what you feel obligation, guilt and/or shame that makes you give too much ; to sort these annoyances towards things, situations and people that actually give joy, and where our fucks should be given. 

Sara uses a two-step NotSorry Method for mental decluttering, aiming to sort everything out, finding what you do and should care about, what you should get rid of, and adapt your cares for your own life ; in short, caring less and getting more - time, energy, money, benefits. 

Often funny, sometimes feels like an in-joke, or public washing of dirty laundry, the advice isn't really new and should fall under common sense, especially when it comes to the resulting actions and phrases we can give to people, either honest or dishonest. 

However, I find that some of these are also culture-specific, as the author living in the US limits her advice to the locals, with a narrow view of what of some of these actions may imply elsewhere, say here in France - where certain things are really mandatory and giving fewer fucks about would result in losing one's job, being shunned in society and so forth - which am sure Sarah Knight wouldn't give a fuck about, giving her more time and leisure away from said society - but, sometimes we simply shouldn't follow blindly. 

Since I didn't really learn anything new and I don't give a proper fuck about ever re-reading this book, and in relation to some myopic views, advice and that possible dirty laundry being exhibited, I find this book a disappointment, hence my overall score. 


The chapters are short, and all are subdivided, sometimes accompanied by illustrations (by Lauren Harms) and tables. 

The book is divided thus: 

Welcome ; a fucking disclaimer ; introduction followed by the 4 main-body chapters 

I on giving, and not giving, a fuck (pages 15-29)
II Deciding not to give a fuck (p. 30-76)
III Not giving a fuck (p. 77-107)
IV The magic of not giving a fuck dramatically transforms your life (p.108-119).

Afterwards (120), Acknowledgements (124), Discover more Sarah Knight (127), About the author (128), Also available (130) and the e-book copyright and ISBN details (133-134). 

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