How to Ruin Everything: Essays

Thought it was going to be a lot more interesting and well-written but it really isn't. Maybe I just don't get the author but I found it stale and too self-aware to the point whete creatovity and commmentary was stunted.

I’ve been binge-reading lately. Everything from: Sedaris, Coupland, Kafka, Lindsay Wincherauk (me), Elle Luna, the "Freakonomics" guys, a guy from "The Onion" who wrote a parody-about-the-parody-that-is-Donald Trump, Liddell; and the somewhat hilariously “Sick in the Head” – Apatow.
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Mr. Watsky’s HOW TO RUIN EVERYTHING is a free flowing wordsmith’s gem. I picked up this book because of the cover. It was simple. I am certain I could design it. It was somehow magnetic. I love it. I had no idea who George Watsky is?

A week after my purchase, August 14, I cracked it open while chilling on Third Beach, in Vancouver, on a beautiful summer day. In the first few pages, I became aware of who George may be.

A few pages later, with the sun scorching down on me, George, and his friend, Jackson, were on their way to Vancouver to attempt to smuggle a whale’s tusk into the States, that Jackson’s aunt (celebrating her 100th birthday several pages later), had purchased in the Canadian Arctic. They were risking a criminal offense.
They crossed the border into Canada. Like many border crossings – the interrogation they faced: felt familiar.

Why is it when we cross the border we are made to feel like criminals?

Anyway, they arrived in Vancouver. I turned the page. The section I came to was Aug 14-15. It made me ponder how he could be writing the book in real time. Even more fascinating, they went to scale a mountain only miles from where I was relaxing. I pondered once more: Do I try to join them?

The friend I was with called me nuts.

I turned a page and entered the future: August 16.

As for my review: The book’s title is misleading (George, suggests this, in the introduction).

The book is about a young man’s life experiences, mostly up to the age of 21. He’s now 29 – I’m well aware he wasn’t penning what I was reading in real time. The title suggests screwing up. What I discovered on the pages was a young man living life; not screwing up, just living life.

My August 17

I Googled: George Watsky. I listened to his music. I loved it. Much like the book is offbeat, quirky, and voyeuristic, with an economy in the usage of words; his storytelling is compelling and gripping. The flow is engrossing.

He takes readers on a road trip through several states, and Canada; risking criminality along the way.

He shares beautifully, what it is like coming to terms with being an outsider in the various schools he attended pecking orders; experiences which so aptly brought him to the mindset: We are all in this ball game of life, together.

He opens up the microphone, guiding us delicately through his battles with epileptic seizures.

And, he shares a beautifully compelling story about bonding with his father, with baseball becoming the conduit between them that cemented their bond.

The essays just mentioned, were worth the read on their own.

As I read on, I was waiting for the life changing event, an event that would have made the book more than just a collection of stories, a moment where we all cheer for the author’s great transformation or his strength to overcome a profound life obstacle that challenged him to become a better person during the manuscripts final pages; something larger than self.

It never came.

That was the one minuscule missing plot twist I had hoped for.

It made me think: This book that I was thoroughly enjoying, it may be a generational norm to BRAND everything you do - in order to flow with the crowd.

Write a song. Write a book. Next... a cologne?

Don’t get me wrong, this is one of the most-well-written slices of literature I’ve read in a while. It drips with lyrical genius in the ease of his prose.

His writing brilliance deflected me away from the fact that he is a 29-year-old successful rapper, intriguing writer; that has yet (not diminishing epilepsy) to have faced tremendous life obstacles. For the most part his life seems to be blessed. I’m certain most people in his demographic haven’t been lucky enough (not to discount his hard work at his crafts) to be able travel the world and experience what he has.

What he, without question delivers, is a fly-on-the-wall view of what it is like to come of age; partially in the spotlight of fame.

What makes the read so refreshing, fame is coming his way – and it doesn’t seem as if he is chasing it!
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HOW TO RUIN EVERYTHING is a gem. With the gift of writing, he has been given, I’m glad he chose to share.

I look forward to his next stories!

I really enjoyed Watsky's voice in these essays. I found them well thought out and they evoked a wide range of emotions from hilarity to heartwarming to absurd. But what really drew me into his essays was the thread of connection and relationships that ran throughout them. From his connection to his father through baseball to his dysfunctional relationships with his roommates in Boston to his commitment to an absurd plan to smuggle a Narwhal tusk in order to have a bigger part in his friend's aunt's 100th birthday, it was these connections that kept me reading and feeling connected to him and what he had to say.

George Watsky is classic. He’s a white middle class Californian. He went to school. He rented places with friends. Some roommates were oddballs. He lusted. He likes recreational drugs. He likes pop music. His parents are very supportive. And so are his friends’ parents. They even lend him money. He reads poetry. He has a band. He’s traveled some. He is 29. This is his autobiography.

The most interesting chapter concerns his dealing with epilepsy. It is a very inconvenient partner, causing him to pass out unexpectedly. Sometimes with fits. He keeps waking up to people asking him what year this is. It has cost him his driver’s license – a lifechanger for any American.

Watsky writes well. He has a structure he likes to employ: there is a confusing opening event, and as you read on, he backfills with the story behind it until you can click the two parts together. He embellishes the potentially ordinary facts with vivid descriptions and pop culture allusions.

I couldn’t help wondering where this was all leading or why it was in any way more important than anyone else’s life, angst, dumb moves and fond memories. How all this formed his focus and life’s work. I guess if you’re a George Watsky fan, every little scrap of data is a treasure.

David Wineberg

This book is magnificent. Part of my love for watskys music was that he was a poet first and thats very evident in anything he writes. The way he masterfully describes things without making it seem like a bore. The way he eloquently paints a picture with his words. Making you feel like your going right along with him through his stories. He an amazingly flawed person who isnt afraid to let you know. Loved this book even more than I thought I would. I will be recommending this to anyone who would be willing to hear my drone on for 30 minutes about how fantastic it is.

Watsky's essays are mostly entertaining and it's usually fun to be taken on his journeys around the world. There are definitely some strange ones that you wonder what he put them in his book for, but they're usually about a time he was high, so maybe they seemed more relevant to him. The craziest thing is the amount of crazy things he was allowed to do. Some of his best essays are right out of high school, and while some of these are the funniest stories, you also wonder where his parents were.

This is one of the best personal essay/ "memoir" books I've read in a long time. George Watsky manages to connect with the people who read his work/listen to his music in a way that others just can't, and his brutal honesty is self-deprecating at times but makes his work even more relatable. 5/5, 10/10, A+.

In this wonderful compilation of essays by Watsky the reader is exposed to the inner workings of this rapper and spoken word poets mind. This book contains part of his life story and what helped shape him into the person he has become. Highly recommend!

Here it comes another YouTube "sensation" who thinks he can write.
Seriously, it's a bit annoying... all these kids who get their "books" published JUST BECAUSE they come knocking at the publishing company's doors with an established number of followers from their YouTube channels.

To be honest, I am not impressed by a bunch of essays that sound like college papers.

I really enjoyed this book. Short and sweet. I like the these were his stories and not something he just made up. I really like Watsky as a musical artist and now a writer. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a quick and easy read :)