Point me to some books and/or websites that give advice or recount experiences of dealing with awkward situations that most sources usually avoid.

April 21, 2008 6:54 PM

Point me to some books and/or websites that give advice or recount experiences of dealing with awkward situations that most sources usually avoid.

One of the things I love about reading ask.mefi is that I come across questions dealing with situations that are really awkward and make people pause and question themselves as how they would go about dealing with them.

Now that made me realize how incredibly lacking most self-help or advice books are about really awkward/unpleasant situations. Some things seem too distasteful to make it into books.

So my question is, are there good books or perhaps websites that address people's experiences with awkward/unpleasant situations that usually are left out of conversation because people hate talking about them?

posted by gregb1007 to human relations (4 comments total)

Pathetic Geek Stories has a slew of illustrated and written recollections.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:05 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]

Rhaomi, that's a great website! Thanks!
posted by gregb1007 at 7:16 PM on April 21, 2008

b3ta.com features a question of the week that veers between the puerile and a particularly self-aware type of genius (often in the same story). It is not always the place for heartfelt solliliquies, but there is no shortage of people describing how they made their way (or didn't) out of really awkward situations.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 1:15 AM on April 22, 2008

I recommend "This American Life" on National Public Radio. Their specialty is "funny-sad-awkward" moments of life. Podcasts are free. See http://www.thislife.org/

In the same vein, books by David Sedaris (a regular contributor on This American Life), such as "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Santaland Diaries". They are even better when read by the author (available on http://www.audible.com).

These still are somewhat uplifting, because most of the stories include a moment of epiphany.
posted by ebellicosa at 11:10 PM on April 22, 2008