Interesting book with creative exercises (art, writing, imagining) to shake things up and see them from a different perspective.

I am a library associate and received an advance copy from #NetGalley.

Fun - out of the box book. Makes you think of how doing some things out of the box - different then your regular actions - can help to refresh your thinking. Not all hit a mark but some can be inspirational. Best to just grasp the inspiration - you can change things to fit you - but it can serve to inspire.

Eric Wilson is an author who has the unique ability to take subjects like unhappiness and being weird and build a solid case for each. I feel like “How To Be Weird” should be required reading for everyone, starting in middle school, when adolescents start to believe it’s cool to be like everyone else. Eric has fun suggestions for how we can all be more weird and stand out from the masses or even just to make our day be more exciting because we have the gumption to act weird! I loved this book and am sharing it with my teenager who thinks his mom is weird!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group- Penguin Books for an advanced copy of this self-help book on embracing your inner weird, and living outside of the the group.

Life is weird and not in a cool good way. No one seems happy or satisfied, nothing seems right and nobody it seems is doing what they really want to do. All those dreams we had as children, all the great things, the amazing things that we would do, and see and even more important the people we were going to be, all fade away in the way of conformity, being normal, not sticking out, being blah being an adult. Where, to quote a term from this book, is our sense of Yūgen. Maybe it is that striving to be normal, to be the nail that does not stick up, the house that has all its garbage cans centered, our grass cut to length our neighbors have decided it should be, that has made us so annoying to be around, especially to ourselves. Eric G. Wilson in How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-of-a-Kind Life wants up to return to that way of living, when curiosity didn't kill a cat, it made the cat thrive, and our outer life might have made people talk, but somehow it seemed a lot more fun.

Being weird used to be an insult. You aren't boring like the rest of us, was basically what the people were saying. Your being free of spirit reminds me that I am not doing what I want to be. Really was a person's dream as a child to work 9 hours a day in a cubicle. However today if that was offered, with insurance people would hope at it. Weird according to Wilson, is doing something that never would occur to adults, and thereby doing something that might loosen that plug holding back not only creativity, but being someone that you want to know. Go to the seaside, or any water, as the sounds, smells and watching the waves has been shown to help relax and inspire many an artist. Take public transportation somewhere that you have never been to, and walk home from there, just to see new scenery, and remind yourself, what the area you life in is like. Plant flowers in a vacant field. Start smelling new things. Just do something.

The book seems to jump around, but that is good in that again a person does not get complacent. Never knowing what the next chapter might bring, the reader might pay more attention to what is written. Looking at what I have written I might have to clear up something. This is not a book about anarchy, this isn't the Joker's guide to destroying Gotham City. This is a book about shaking up the normal, and trying to get back to when the world was fresh and new to us. The writing is good, sometimes it can be a little, ugh, but you have to respect a guy who wants people to doddle for mental health. There are a lot of good points in here, and actually it is one of the better self-help books I've read recently. And I have read a lot.

Remember when people would say- Ya Weirdo- as if it was an insult? Now we know, it’s a compliment! The question is how? This book shows us just that and the ideas are a lot more fun than what’s needed to be cool such as flipping your collar up. And don’t misjudge this book, it can definitely fall in the self help section with life lessons - rearranging your childhood bedroom, Get a Zero,
This also brought back memories such as a kid, I did conceive a swear word, what inanimate object would I be? Moss!
Honestly I LOVED this book and in this day and age of everyone trying for Instagram perfection feel it is needed by all! Great holiday gift idea and also corporations- if you want inspired employees- buy them this book!

Whimsical ideas to get out of your groove and your creative weirdness growing. Some of them helpful, some of them just weird . . . but then, I guess that's the point, isn't it?

I’ve known my whole life that I was “weird” and never felt the negative connotation that sometimes accompanies the word. How to Be Weird by Eric Wilson gives the reader nearly one hundred ways to enhance your life and “help you release your inner weird.” Every well-read human, or goose, will enjoy the references to great philosophers, authors, and artists. Parts will make you earnestly think and others will make you giggle. Wilson guides the reader through many exercises geared to develop your “weirdness” and help you hone your skills. From creating a shadowbox to constructing a curvilinear terrarium, you will need very little as the text utilizes mostly found or created objects, but he does require you record things in a journal or notebook. The book also taught me some new fascinating facts. I found myself flipping to the Resources page many times throughout to learn more about a quote or nugget of knowledge Wilson included. This book is not just a fun read, but also could be used for educational purposes. Many of the exercises throughout foster creativity and imagination. Some could even function as writing prompts for teachers or professors to use in creative writing classes. Although it wasn’t what I expected by just reading the title, this book should be included in every bibliophile’s collection.

VERDICT: From start to finish, this book has great re-readability and a fun voice. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to break a little right-sided brain sweat.

I loved this book. It is not a book to make you weird but more of a guide to possibly move you forward, potentially change some of the things we do that are on autopilot. There are exercises to stimulate your thought patterns. It is a good read and I personally think everyone would take away something from reading it.

A huge thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this!

This is not so much a book on how to be weird, but a book acknowledging our own unique weirdness as the author states we each have our own little quirks, habits, and other trivialities. The book is truly fascinating and interesting as he lists several actors and other famous people that have all been "weird". The book is then a book of exercises in which we can practice our own weirdness such as creating a shadow box or just practicing being able to write with both hands. Just a total fascinating book.