I don’t think I could have chosen a better book to kickstart my book review segment; it had to be James Blunt’s debut. Yep, the same person who believed that You’re Beautiful more number times than your parent/guardian/significant other ever conceived that thought. It's true.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of e-meeting a dude who proudly proclaimed how he had never read a book in his life.

“What about school and college? You wouldn’t have cleared either without reading a book?”

He argued how skimming through coursework is not the same. This public proclamation left me bewildered until I came across James Blunt’s book announcement last week. Titled “How to be a Complete and Utter Blunt: Diary of a Reluctant Social Media Sensation” (2020; Constable), the book is a curation of social media musings and quoted responses featured on Blunt’s Twitter.

No, really.

There’s nothing else to this book, other than his selected tweets categorized in Gregorian Calendar order and being called "a year in the life".

It took me one sitting, under 30 minutes, to wrap up the reading. It is perfect for those who claim to never have read a book in their life. I highly encourage people to use this as a starting point in losing their "read a book" virginity.

One of my favourite things to do with regard to the reading of a book is digging up the additional information sheet. This AI sheet/AIS as the publishing honchos would call is compiled by the person who gets paid the least, typically an intern who has no clue about the book or the author. The job requires you to summarize the book and sell it in a way that someone reading an Amazon review would find equal value in purchasing as much as a literary critic who would be sent a review copy. Unfortunately, this is where most publishing houses fuck up and do an incredibly shoddy job.

The AI sheet information for Blunt's book is nothing like that because it actually sells the book, more than what it is. The back cover blurb is charming,

Once upon a time, James Blunt's most enduring legacy was a three-minute, thirty-second pop song about a girl he saw on the underground, and a nation's worth of abuse. But with the invention of Twitter, James found his real voice, and with it, the chance to reply with a simple 'up yours'. Now the King of Twitter has ascended to the heady heights of occasionally 'winning the internet'.

What remains the highlight for me are these two short pieces at the beginning and the end. Yes, Foreword, thanks.

Blunt really encapsulates the raison d'être in these two sections and paints a grim picture; of the growth of the society, the self, and foregrounds with the extension of our lives on social media. He shot to fame with one remarkable track and while people couldn’t get enough of it, others couldn’t get enough of why he was getting it all. If this sounds heavy, wait until I tell you, it's written in a manner that's so caustic that it will tear your eye sockets. It's sharp and pungent, in your face, much like his tweets.

Between the early noughties and this year, a lot has changed and has touched everything including the technological landscape, our engagement with revered icons, and our sense of being as a whole. Our experience of being on social media and using in a manner the way we do now has totally transformed our lives over the past decade and a half. It is impossible to comprehend James Blunt gaining this reputation today from scratch. A James Blunt-esque figure cannot come into existence in the present-day scenario, especially when people are triggered easily and are usually almost one step away from cancelling others, simply because their opinion does not correspond with yours or someone else's. Thankfully, Blunt and I agree on something with regard to opinion. A quote that I believed in and consequently filled it in slam books at the tender age of 13 is now being used to sell the book.

I went as far back as 2013 Twitter to see for myself, what really happened that created this version of James Blunt—we need but don't deserve.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone who exists online must be trolled harshly. Which is to say, being known comes with its baggage. Blunt is no different from say, a Rebecca Black/Carly Rae Jepsen or Daimaou Kosaka or Dhinchak Pooja, except on one account. He took on people with his sense of humour and self-deprecation, both of which rightly earned him the position to be ruthless; a savage and a half if you may.

This earned him the credit; it created a distinction between him and the rest of them who chose to stay quiet to protect their legacy or whatever else. He stepped up, each fucking time, like a dictionary illustration to one of my favourite tracks of all times.

Coming straight to the point, why should you care about James Blunt, his legacy with one-hit, and his book/writing?

For one, this is going to be peddled by growth hackers and audience editors in weeks to come with this headline (or iterations).
REMEMBER THIS SINGER? HE IS NOW ONE BOOK DOWN AND TOTALLY SASSY!!!

Calling James Blunt “sassy” might be the end of this beautiful, messy story and his fantastic writing. I don’t underestimate influencer cunt kinds. They get to you in the worst ways possible. Most of those ways include the usage of the word “sass” as some form of embellishment to situate the level of the content you will be presented. If it has the potential to be “viral” or worse “relatable” (gasp), it’ll definitely include the word “sass”.

I digress but coming to the next point, James Blunt writing and explaining things is really a transcendental experience you don’t want to miss.

He talked about the process of writing You’re Beautiful here and it was truly one of the more memorable things I learned about a song that was in my Top 25 Most Played list, right along with a photograph of my 5-foot-nothing crush at the time. The two essays which accompany the tweets in his book are emblematic of the maladies of our times. They go over self-awareness, trolls, bullies, drunk tweeting among other things, and all in less than 1500 words in total.

James Blunt's tweets convey everything worth sharing about his journey from a singer-songwriter to becoming a reluctant social media rockstar, something Noel Gallagher and Kanye struggle and aspire hard to be with their micro-prosaic existence online. He out-trolled himself by taking every single jab and poking it back in a manner of equal and opposite reaction. His debut is a testament to that quality. It fights to remain fresh, in a space that is crowded by pleasing all sentiment that is plastered across the internet.

Blunt writing this book, which is to say, Blunt adding his curated tweets and replies to a manuscript, reminded me of the time I aspired to win an award in college. Sadly, the only award I could win was for attending college for the maximum number of days in three years. For a fancy title and all that, it was really just a glorified way of saying "Attendance Award" and that garnered me the title of a colossal loser by one and all whenever anyone heard of it, including potential employers later in life.

As for the book, times are hard and unless your husband is a mafia, I wouldn’t recommend putting your money here. Definitely not especially if you are a broke fucker living from payment to payment. Instead, I’ve curated a collection of his tweets that you can read for free and enjoy snippets of the book here, as it is.

Blunt exclaimed he wrote the book cause times are hard and he needs money, thus I fully empathize with packaging shit in new ways and making a public spectacle out of yourself in the process. But more than anything, the book is made of this incredible man's journey, of facing hate and telling everyone to shove it up their ass'.

In the event you do find yourself convinced and moved by my words, you can purchase the book from here. Jeff, send commission, bb.