Most self-help books try the top-down approach: here's all the things you need to improve whatever it is you're trying to improve. Judging by the proliferation of these books, you might wonder how effective they are, and that's sort of a hypothesis in How to Be Miserable.

In How to Be Miserable, we learn forty different strategies on how to essentially ruin our lives. For example, never find yourself alone--you might start reflecting on your life! Give in to the immediate temptation even though you know you'll feel like trash later.

Be hyper-critical of others and yourself. Follow the fashions of the day and never develop your own personal style. Spend a lot of money. Always be focusing on a shiny future that may or may not--probably not--happen.

Be a perfectionist! Don't you know that everything you do must be flawless? You have to have the cleanest teeth, the best job, the most attractive spouse....

And so on and so forth.

There were times when reading this book (particularly the perfectionist chapter and the couple before and after it) I felt my heart sank. I recognized myself in these negative behaviors that are making me miserable: depressed, anxious, isolated.

That's the power behind How to Be Miserable. It takes a bottom-up approach. It inverts what you normally expect from self-help. Inversion is a powerful tool for problem-solving (in this case for solving why the heck so many of us are miserable) and you may find, as you read, that the way out of your predicament is more obvious. You'll be able to see yourself in these behaviors, think of how to reverse it, and, well, from there that's all on you.

While some of the strategies I read were a real gut punch given how good I am at implementing them, I now have some ideas on how to reverse the trend.

How to Be Miserable points out that we can't escape misery completely. Life is awful sometimes. Can't do anything about it. But you can live a certain way, realizing how entwined thought and emotion are, such that even if you're sad right now, you know how to deal with it. You know what to do to start climbing out and, in the event you can't, you can know how to cope.

This book is written in a tongue-in-cheek way, yet I departed from it deep in thought. A must read if you're trying to figure out why your life is so bad.

Do not think of this as a self help book. It is an learning book that rivals the best therapy session one could experience. It's aims are serious, and the author walks the reader through a contrarian approach to bring out the core activities, ways of thinking, and common responses to depression that can pave the way to a more abiding, intractable, and debilitating state of despair. Here reading is engaging in a therapeutic activity that brings insight, and challenges. It's method is to demonstrate how easy it is to use short term methods of eliminating pain that lead to greater, and more abiding, pain. The last chapter puts the book into crystalline focus and makes concrete and gentle suggestions on how to use what one learned from the book; methods to reverse a course we thought would help but now understand will not. The author's judicious use of humor and excellent writing created a book that might otherwise make the reader squirm with too much recognition; too much insight; too many truths. Despite being so effective, it is always accessible and ironically a pleasure to read, despite a feeling of interacting with someone who seems to know you all too well. This book is worth every minute you spend reading it.

Great book about all the things NOT to do if you want to be happy, told in a humorous but highly informative manner, with varous examples and descriptions of how the different strategies work, and why people feel they way they do.

This book is easy to read and oh so helpful. It's also funny and entertaining. Delivery of mental health info in this way is most pleasing. The book made me laugh at myself instead of feeling drab and overwhelmed and also gave me tangible things to look further into. I loved reading this and have taken the information to heart.

This may be the most eye-opening book I have ever read. And I am laughing my face off reading it. I own so many self-help books (check the buying "stuff" chapter) but none has ever made me realize so clearly why I am always miserable. But Randy (who is my new best friend) lists an activity that will help you to be miserable. Then I say: "Yup. Yup. I do that all the time......" and then I could write the rest of the chapter. I had to give up tonight on the "Be Informed" chapter. I am so informed. I read the newspaper with the TV on with my phone by my right hand and my Kindle by my left. No one is more informed,(i.e. terrified, outraged, antagonistic, disgusted, etc.) than I am. For what? What am I going to do about it? If he needs a big, fat example of the prototype for his book, here I am. I'm going to work on this. During every waking hour (which will be many. I can sleep when I'm dead.) for the rest of my life. I will be passionate in the pursuit of my misery. I think Randy would be proud..

I borrowed this ebook from my library's website and liked it so much that I had to buy a copy. I initially read it because I was fighting a major depressive episode and wanted to focus on what I can do possibly prevent another. This book was really eye opening in that I do like 75% of what makes people miserable. After reading it, I decided to do an overhaul of my lifestyle, starting with my sleep patterns and getting outside for morning sunshine. I don't usually find self help books to be very helpful but this one really spoke to me. It is great advice delivered with humor so definitely an easy read even if you are moderately depressed. But he does mention that it wouldn't be helpful for someone in a deep, severe depression.

I started reading this for fun/as a joke, thinking I’d do maybe 1-3 of the strategies. I was wrong! I use a lot more of the “strategies” than I realized, and see many of my friends do the same. Misery can sneak up on us in unexpected ways, and ways I never noticed or thought of. This book can be entertaining in a dark way, but still informative. A few parts can be difficult to understand; it’s like the author switches between teaching a lesson and commenting without making very obvious. Other than that, it’s a great book, even if you aren’t miserable.

Glad I have this loaded on my Kindle. Whenever I'm having a pity party for myself I read a couple of chapters. Snapped me back to reality when I first got it.

Una gran lectura. Necesaria para todos los que sienten que algo no anda del todo bien en su vida y no sepan por qué se deprimen o se llegan a sentir miserable. No es una lectura de superación personal, trae información claramente estudiada y probada.

Uma leitura excelente para quem se auto sabota.

It goes in a different direction of help where it doesn't tell you what to do, but helps understand what you have to stop doing. Helped me a lot.

A great approached, to me it was much more interesting, helpful and actionable than most self-help books. I enjoyed the tone and length.

This book is ludicrous and should be banned. I haven't even read the whole book but I can tell it is absolutely a fraud. It does not help anybody who are genuinely wanting to be unhappy, depressed, and miserable. The strategies do work. However the way they are written is quite counter intuitive in a way that makes you less mesirable and more happy which is the complete opposite of the aim. By telling you to actually 'do' these and living miserably is acceptable you become more conscious and more aware of your misery behaviours.