How to Ruin Everything: Essays

I've been a fan of Watsky's rap music since I was 16, but this book shows his roots as being first and foremost an excellent writer. Whether he's describing the time his mother tearfully accused his delinquent elementary-schooler self of growing up to "steal houses", or the time he, a vegetarian, smuggled ivory across the Canadian border for someone's hundredth birthday, every sentence is a glorious combination of good humor and true ennui. Like his music, his stories are focused - everything mentioned is relevant later, and what seems like digression always has a point that you don't even see until the second listen/reread. You will laugh. You may not cry, but the dark and sad parts of you will feel understood. You will certainly come out of the other end of reading this a different and better person, more equipped to understand mortality, boredom, self-destruction, embarrassment, and joy.