1997 / Ebook / 192 pages / USA****
Since my predictable rage quickly dissipates once a temporary annoyance predictably resolves itself (until the just as predictable reprise), I've never dwelled too much on the problem I clearly have. But now that my outbursts are waking up a sleeping baby all the way from downstairs, it seemed like it might be a good time to deal with this, before she becomes a predictably naughty toddler or I have a predictable heart attack and miss the rest of it. This long sales letter for a modern take on stoicism has lots of good tips.
1999 / Ebook / 106 pages / USA
***
I don't have the patience to put this wacky professor's theory to the test, but it turns out I'm doing some of these instinctively anyway.
Dominic Gettins, How to Write Great Copy: Learn the Unwritten Rules of Copywriting (a.k.a. The Unwritten Rules of Copywriting)
2000 (updated 2006) / Ebook / 192 pages / UK***
If I'd known this was almost squarely aimed at the modern day Mad Men (& Women) trying to come up with a killer slogan, I wouldn't have bothered, but it's always good to go through the general rules again. Though I'd say they're not 'unwritten' if they were already written down in the first edition and in most other copywriting books. Plenty of UK-centric examples to show American readers what that feels like.
2010 / Audiobook / 233 pages / USA
***
I figured this was riding on Ready Player One's indulgent retro wave and was surprised that this one came first, though you can never be sure when time travel's involved. All the genre references try to obscure that it's just The Man Who Folded Himself.
2014 / Ebook / 182 pages / UK
***
No jaw-dropping revelations in this matter-of-fact guide for the socially underdeveloped, but some consolation that my customary self-deplatforming detox is sometimes the best solution, especially when I could be hanging out with a happy baby instead.
