Elizabeth Day's Failosophy is a thought-provoking and candid exploration of the concept of failure. Drawing on her own experiences and those of others, Day delves into the ways in which failure can shape our lives, and offers insights into how we can learn to embrace it.

One of the strengths of this book is Day's engaging and conversational writing style. She has a talent for weaving personal anecdotes and reflections into her analysis, making the book both relatable and insightful. Day also draws on a diverse range of examples, from politics to sport, to illustrate her points, which adds depth and richness to her arguments.

Another highlight of Failosophy is the practical advice it offers. Day includes a series of exercises and tips at the end of each chapter, which are designed to help readers cultivate resilience and learn from their failures. These sections are particularly useful, and give the book a tangible, actionable quality.

However, some readers may find the book repetitive in places. Day's central message - that failure is an inevitable and important part of life - is a powerful one, but it can feel laboured at times. Additionally, some of the examples and anecdotes she uses can feel somewhat contrived, and there are moments when the book feels overly self-help-y.

Overall, though, Failosophy is a well-written and insightful exploration of a complex and often uncomfortable topic. It offers practical advice and encourages readers to think differently about failure, making it a valuable read for anyone looking to grow and learn from their experiences.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Read the audiobook version of this and it was perfect. As a real fan of Elizabeth Day’s podcast, “How to Fail”, it felt somewhat familiar to read this book as an audiobook. I like how she summarised the advice she’s been fortunate to sit through and share on the podcast into 7 failure principles. Some , I found more relatable than others, but she kept me entertained nonetheless. I also love how she includes the live audio of the contributor when she shares the inspiration behind the principles and lessons learned.

Don’t be too keen to drop the copy at the end. Be sure to sit and listen to her compilation of the failures of her guests in the appendix at the end. Well worth it!

I love everything Elizabeth Day produces, literally every single thing. Can this woman do no wrong? Her work fell into my life at a time when I obviously needed it. Failosophy is a brilliant short and snappy book that shows us how failings in life actually are times when we can fully learn. I loved this book so much I purchased in hardback for myself and copies for my friends.

How not to feel a failure. I don’t know what I was expecting when I read this as I’m the sort of person who often chooses something if the title intrigues me, but didn’t expect a self help book. Some interesting points from both her and her guests but can’t say I was blown away by any of it or that I’d refer to anything in the book again. This must be the shortest “book” I’ve read in quite a while! Anyone who likes mindful books will be delighted but I’m not entirely sold.

If you're familiar with the How to Fail podcast, this won't feel very "new" to you. It's more of a book for the uninitiated to Day's philosophy on failure with wisdom from her high profile guests.

This is the perfect book for the lockdown existential crisis. I love Elizabeth and her podcast anyway but this has made me love her even more! ,This was so refreshingly relatable, honest and helpful without the patronising tone..

I’ve taken away a lot from this book, and it will be one I return to for comfort when I need it. I can’t wait for more from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for this review copy. I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Day's podcast and also her first book, How To Fail. Her work is astounding simply because nobody speaks publicaly about life in quite the same way that she does. Needless to say I was very excited to get my hands on her second book. After reading it, I must say that I would recommend her first book more. Don't get me wrong, Failosophy was still really good, but I felt that it read more like a top-up for those who had read the first book and needed a little 'it's OK to fail' booster jab. This is the only reason I give it four stars rather than 5. If you are new to Elizabeth Day's work, I recommend starting with her first book (and the incredible podcast too, of course!).

I've just finished reading the introduction of this book, and if the rest of it is so friendly and supportive and accepting and stuff, then hopefully it'll end with the same 5 stars that it started of with!

I've decided... from now on, I wanna be like Clemmie. She's been through more than I have but seems to have taken it all in her stride and never asked "why me?" which is what I've uttered numerous times over the last 20-odd years, but not any more. Now I'm gonna start learning from my mistakes and start trying to re-imagine myself with the mantra "why NOT me?" My Deities have obviously put these obstacles in my path so that I can learn something from them, so that's exactly what I'm gonna aim to do from now on.

I like the way Sunim thinks and talks... so much sense that I'm already thinking about how I can change myself for the better and I'm not even a quarter of the way through the book yet!

OK. Just finished the entire book in an afternoon and I can describe the experience in just one, single, word: "Wow!" It's a must-read by everyone, child and adult alike, no matter if you're homeless or a celebrity. I'm gonna try and work out how to use podcasts for the first time in my life too. Please, buy and read this book - you won't regret it.

In Failosophy: a handbook for when things go wrong, Elizabeth Day, author of How to Fail, and creator of the award-winning podcast, brings together all the lessons she has learned from her own life.

This book talks about the biosphere of failure that a person carries around as they get progressively older. It is a fast-paced narrative that aims to shift your perspective on failure. It looks at failure, at a distance and nudges you to disconnect from the feeling of discontent. At the core, the book is all abouttraining your brain to be happier but it is lathered by heartfelt stories from famous people.

This is the perfect book as a pick me up when you feel like everything you are currently doing, is wrong, or you question yourself why something is not working.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Failosophy: A handbook for when things go wrong -Elizabeth Day
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚠️ Attempted suicide, infertility and miscarriage ⚠️

“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling a story from the same facts.” -Alain De Botton

The saying goes, ‘only two things are inevitable in life; death and taxes.’ However, I’d like to think that at some point, whether it be infinitesimal or seismic, every human being in existence has encountered the feeling of failure. The nature of the beast is, that failure is not bias and it has no prejudice, it universally connects us on a humanistic level. It has the power to adversely deteriorate our happiness, ravaging the joy in day-to-day life.

But how do we respond to the disappointment of failure? What happens when we alter our perspective and embrace failure as a necessary part of our development? Day offers logical solutions to rewire our thinking; “When you de-stigmatise failure, it loses its power to harm you.”

In 160 pages, it packs in comforting, anecdotal evidence of failures from public figures (including Day herself), motivational quotes from philosophers and authors, whilst offering practical advice through the ‘Seven Failure’ Principles.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for this ARC.

I really didn’t enjoy this book I’m afraid. I just didn’t like the way it was written and I didn’t it particularly helpful or interesting

I’ve read and really enjoyed the author’s fiction, so this caught my interest when I got an email from NetGalley promoting the book. I am not a person who copes well with failure. I am a person who sees every failure as a million times worse than it really is and who obsesses over little detail to analyse what could have gone wrong and what should have gone better. This book sounded exactly what I needed. It was. I will check out the podcast at some point as I found this really interesting and insightful. The book is more down to earth than I expected and is more about accepting good and bad experiences, understanding you can’t change the outcome or control everything. Very inspirational.

I've been hearing about this book so I was delighted to receive the ARC! Elizabeth Day is as inspiring in this handbook as she is in her podcasts. I loved this compilation of life lessons.

Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong draws on the lessons Elizabeth Day has learned from the guests on her podcast How To Fail as well experiences in her own life.

Broken down into seven principles based on the themes that feature most on the podcast, Failosophy is a refreshingly reassuring book about the fact that, yes, everyone makes mistakes but it is possible for your failures not to define you.

Reading Elizabeth Day is like reading the thoughts of a close friend. She is honest and open about her experiences in life, and not afraid to say how they impacted her. I loved How to Fail and know that it's a book I will go back to again in the future, I think Failosophy will be too.

“What if, instead of planning for a future version of yourself that doesn’t exist, you pay attention to the present you; the one who does?”

I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth Day’s writing (both her fiction and non-fiction), and have been listening to her How To Fail podcast since the beginning, so I knew I’d love Failosophy too. This mini book on how failure can actually help us learn how to succeed takes all the lessons Elizabeth has learned from her own failures, as well as the failures of her celebrity podcast guests, and distills them into “The Seven Principles of Failure.” It’s a lovely little pick-me-up of a book – inspiring and practical in equal measure – and cements Elizabeth Day as one of my favourite writers.

Absolutely marvellous follow-up to Elizabeth’s fabulous smash hit. Always smart, witty and with a huge heart. Highly recommend.

I loved this book! I really love the podcast, and I really enjoyed the How To Fail book, and I just love Elizabeth's philosophy that just because something bad happens, it doesn't mean that something better can't come from it.

Short but meaningful study on failure.

Brief but rather inspiring, if you need someone to show you a new way of looking at failure. Being a positive person, who has previously studied psychology, I was interested to see Day’s perspective.

Broken down into : what is failure and the seven principles therein, this tries to give you a positive way of seeing “what happens when something doesn’t go according to plan”, and giving a lot of examples of famous names who’ve experienced and overcome such difficulties in their lives.

Some suggestions are very useful: “what if, instead of going down a rabbit-hole of self-loathing every time a romantic partner leaves your...messages unanswered, you think: ‘You are clearly not the right person for me. Thank you for eliminating yourself from my enquiries...’”

It did lift me up, and remind me that there’s no point dwelling, you might as well take something productive from these things, they are universal.

This was an easy read, broken up into small sections, well labelled, and with longer celebrity failures at the end to digest and show the range of how humans, whoever they are, are dealt unfortunate circumstances and have to deal with them. And can.

Succinct but an interesting and useful little read.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard fan of the ‘How to Fail’ podcast, but I have listened to several episodes (Camilla Thurlow, Andrew Scott and James Acaster are all guests who jump out) and really love the concept - the idea that we should talk about our failures more, particularly to voice how we may have learnt from them, or what we have gained from failing.

Day’s book is a compact book (I read it in two sittings on the train) featuring an idea called ‘The Seven Failure Principles’, which she has devised after similar themes in the podcast episodes kept recurring. It’s a short guide to how to deal with failure, essentially, and how to frame it in different contexts to better manage it. It’s super digestible and offers some excellent advice, without being too preach-y, as well as including a few of Day’s own examples of failure, while not being too memoir-like. The book is peppered throughout with quotes and moment from the podcast: if you’ve listened to episodes it’s great to recall these moments, and if you’ve never listened to it that’s fine too - it all makes sense. I also love the inclusion of the three failures guests have submitted to Day - you can infer a lot by whether a guest has three short points, or written mini-essays on each failure. It’s fascinating and made me wonder what my three failures would be if I were ever on the show (which...I don’t think I would be, ha!).

Overall this is an excellent little book which I think is a handy edition to anyone’s bookshelf - pop it in your backpack or download to your phone, and take in the wisdom as and when you need it.