Zine Review: Simple Steps to a Life Less Shitty

ZINES_Simple StepsSimple Steps to a Life Less Shitty
Zine, Adam Gnade, 32 pages, 100 E Kansas Ave, #248 Lansing, Kansas 66043, [email protected], pioneerspress.com, $5.99

Like a lot of people, I have a healthy skepticism for anything that can be classified as self-help. It’s hard not to in this culture filled with sleazebags, charlatans, and quacks who all want to help you help yourself…for a price. But fear not! This is not some DIY iteration of The Secret, but rather the latest installment of Adam Gnade’s thoughtful series of booklets that have included The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad and My Brain was a Shark Eating Itself. Are you confused? Are you bad with money? Are you bummed out because you spend too much time on social media? Of course you are! And Gnade is right down there in the trenches with you with this series of books through which he is experimenting with a “kinder, smarter way to live.” In this installment he really finds the universal in these short pieces that honestly made me pause to reconsider my relationship to some of life’s paradoxes and challenges. And while, unlike Gnade, I don’t live on a farm in rural Kansas and my band is not playing All Tomorrow’s Parties, the experiences related here are otherwise humble, thoughtful, and totally relatable. So check it out and then pass it on to an anxious friend, ok? (Chris Landry)