Poe for Your Problems
Uncommon Advice from History's Least Likely Self-Help Guru
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Poe for Your Problems
Narrated by:
Jennifer Jill Araya
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer Jill Araya
About this listen
Of all the writers anywhere, Poe might be the least likely person you'd ever turn to for advice. His life was a complete dumpster fire: he married his cousin; got fired from one job after another; constantly feuded with friends and rivals; and he was always broke. But that’s also precisely the point. Though Poe failed again and again, he also persevered.
Drawing deeply on his works and life, Catherine Baab-Muguira takes the familiar image of Poe in a new and surprising direction in this darkly inspiring self-help book. Despite what you might think, Edgar Allan Poe is the perfect person to teach you to say "Nevermore, problems!" and show you how to use all the terrible situations, tough breaks, bad luck, and even your darkest emotions in novel and creative ways to make a name for yourself and carve out your own unique, notorious place in the world.
An inspirational tale for black sheep everywhere, Poe for Your Problems will teach you how to overcome life’s biggest challenges to succeed at work, love, and art—despite the odds and no matter your flaws.
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Critic reviews
“Books about people’s successes are common. Books where you can learn from someone’s painful demons and failures are rarer—but far more meaningful. Cat's writing on Poe is insightful, funny and important.”—Ryan Holiday, author of THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY
“Fresh, page-turning, deeply informed and often funny, Catherine Baab-Muguira’s Poe for Your Problems brings us a sorely overdue Poe-meets-modernity perspective that won’t simply make its readers happier but smarter and even saner, too.”—Alan Pell Crawford, author of HOW NOT TO GET RICH: THE FINANCIAL MISADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN
“I loved this! A book Poe himself might’ve written: fun, dangerous, a little dark, semi-autobiographical, ambitious but not pompous, and funny and outrageous!”—Steve Hely, producer of THE OFFICE, 30 ROCK, and VEEP, author of HOW I BECAME A FAMOUS NOVELIST
“This is more like an anti-self-help book, a guide to accepting yourself for the substance-abusing, sexually suspect fuckup you already are; a how-to for cultivating grudges, nurturing petty jealousies and vendettas, scheming the destruction of your enemies and indulging delusions of grandeur. I endorse this.”—Tim Kreider, author of I WROTE THIS BOOK BECAUSE I LOVE YOU and WE LEARN NOTHING
“Beautifully written, funny, clever, and wise . . . Baab-Muguira not only provides us with invaluable takeaways from Poe’s antisocial behavior, but also implores us to embrace our own madness, or as she calls it, our "own weird-ass, occasionally combative truth.'"—John Reeves, author of A FIRE IN THE WILDERNESS
Books that employ a jaunty, irreverent and humorous tone to deal with their subject matter are not really my cup of tea. When the humour falls flat, the whole exercise quickly becomes embarrassing. Listening to this book feels like being stuck in a room with a comedian who is bombing.
I don't even know what the message of the book is. It kind of offers the promise that doing your own thing, being your own flawed self, is the best way to happiness. But then it is saying you should embrace your uniqueness in pursuit of the standard aims of a six pack, immense wealth, fame etc etc.
I must admit, I wasn't able to complete the book and maybe it gets better. It certainly couldn't get any worse, but the reason I gave up quite early (beside the unfunny attempts at being funny and personable) was a growing fear the whole book stakes its claim to being worth publishing and listening to on the basis of a repeated pun about a 'Poe-gramme' for being happy.
The self-help genre is rammed full of dross. But even measured against that low bar this maybe the most awful of the lot.
A whole book based on puns around the word Poe
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