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How to Be Human: The Manual cover art

How to Be Human: The Manual

By: Ruby Wax
Narrated by: Ruby Wax, Ash Ranpura, Gelong Thubten
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Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of How to be Human: The Manual written and read by Ruby Wax with Ash Ranpura and Gelong Thubten.

It took us 4 billion years to evolve to where we are now. No question, anyone reading this has won the evolutionary Hunger Games by the fact you're on all twos and not some fossil. This should make us all the happiest species alive, yet most of us aren't. What's gone wrong? We've started treating ourselves more like machines and less like humans. We're so used to upgrading things like our iPhones: as soon as the new one comes out, we don't think twice, we dump it. (Many people I know are now on iWife4 or iHusband8, the motto being, if it's new, it's better.)

We can't stop the future from arriving, no matter what drugs we're on. But even if nearly every part of us becomes robotic, we'll still, fingers crossed, have our minds, which, hopefully, we'll be able to use for things like compassion rather than chasing what's 'better', and if we can do that we're on the yellow brick road to happiness.

I wrote this book with a little help from a monk, who explains how the mind works and also gives some mindfulness exercises, and a neuroscientist who explains what makes us 'us' in the brain. We answer every question you've ever had about evolution, thoughts, emotions, the body, addictions, relationships, kids, the future and compassion. How to be Human is extremely funny, true and the only manual you'll need to help you upgrade your mind as much as you've upgraded your iPhone.

©2017 Ruby Wax (P)2017 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about How to Be Human: The Manual

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Psychology book with a difference

I listen to lot of Psychology books, but this so different from all the rest.. Ruby and her team have a nice way about telling this story .
Plus having Ruby tell the story made it more true to life with her Monk Friend and Neuro Friend ..
Only down fall their not a PDF to print of for the Mindfulness exercise in Chapter 11

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33 people found this helpful

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l am now a little bit in love with Ruby Wax

l am bi polar and have struggled with hospitalisation, depression, psychosis. l am also spiritual, Wax is commendable, her style accesible, honest with good humour. l very much enjoyed how she draws in the knowledge of the monk and neuroscientist, a fascinating and holistic viewpoint. All experts in their fields..all humble and likeable, no high brow pontification..just authentic information sharing. How to be human is full of heart, compassion and kindness, if everyone would read it our world would be a better place...lm off to search more publications penned by Ruby Wax!

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25 people found this helpful

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Brilliant

I really enjoyed this book. The conversations between Ruby, the monk & the neuroscientist were a brilliant addition. Very fascinating & highly recommend!!

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15 people found this helpful

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Another fantastic book from Ruby

This book definitely lived up to expectations. Having listened to Ruby’s other books I was unsure if this may feel like ‘more of the same’. Whilst there was overlap with the others, there was also a lot of fresh content. I loved the idea of three contributors with various perspectives and I thoroughly enjoyed the wisdom of the monk and the neuroscientist. I did find the humorous exchanges between the three a little forced. What they were saying was engaging enough on its own, the choreographed jokes weren’t needed. That’s me being picky though. Overall the book was fantastic. Interesting, informative and very touching. Ruby bravely opens up about her own challenges and the chapter around her ‘who do you think you are’ journey were incredibly moving. I love her raw honesty and of course her humour is always on point.

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8 people found this helpful

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Mind the gap

It was an entertaining book to listen to. Ruby and her contributors were warm and wise but I found it a bit general and when Ruby described the male population as either alpha or beta I felt like it had rolled about 10years backwards in terms of human understanding. I thought this was about how to be 'human' and although I understand there are some general differences between the sexes, I think these might be more hormonal and cultural than neurological.

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6 people found this helpful

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love this refreshing book ,a school with wit👏

Loved it many deep belly, laugh out loud moments.
Accessible Humerous , Scientific and Wise minds within these pages.

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6 people found this helpful

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Mind scrunching!

I've read a few books on mindfulness, neuroscience and studied a year long course on the latter, so thought I'd get Ruby's take on it as the rating were good!

I couldn't last more than an hour - yes she's got her 'way' of explaining and talking about things, but man my mind was the opposite to being mindful, it was been washed and crunched all over the place by her inane references and chit chat - it may well have got better but to me this subject is about calming and slowing down, being more focussed and I was far from able to with this book!

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5 people found this helpful

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Brilliant a must read/listen Mindfulness Magically captured

Insightful, Delightful & Ruby Wax on form delivering nuggets of knowledge - loved listening to Ash & Thubten give their insights - a must have listen for any human 👍🙏❤️

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4 people found this helpful

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The book started off well ...

The book had a good premise and started well. I particularly liked Ruby's self examining and the inter-play between the 3, then the book went flat as the sales pitch was '...' don't want to say as it is a spoiler. The problem is the sales pitch isn't anything mind blowing, but is the end point of each chapter, so you end up thinking should I jump to that chapter.

Now this is not a long book, so some content is skimmed, I can only guess edited out as Ruby has a tendency to wander. So unfortunately some areas are not covered fully and, as ths is the first RW book I have read, being referred to another book didn't do it for me. As the book proceeded, the content got thinner and thinner, to the point I gave up and jumped to the end chapter. I didn't go too far into that chapter :-|

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3 people found this helpful

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it's definitely ruby's show

it's definitely ruby's show loved it feel very human. Def recommend it to any one

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3 people found this helpful