You can barely enter a bookshop these days without tripping over piles of self-help books that guarantee to make you better, happier, thinner, prettier, more confident, more beautiful, more lovable, more date-able, and inducting you into the mysteries of The Secret or taking your order for the Cosmic Ordering Service. Now comes a book that really cuts to the chase. If you hate yourself, can't bear to look in the mirror, feel your life is a failure...then do it properly! Here is a book that can take even a sunny, carefree, happy-go-lucky person - the kind who always looks on the bright side and bounces back with a smile after any silly knock - and teach them to plumb the depths of self-hatred and disgust. And the difference between all this superficial, I-can-fix-your-life-in-five-minutes nonsense and Lynn Phillips' book is that she knows it takes time. No-one said it would be easy. The road to true self-loathing is a long, arduous one that demands dedication, will power, and attention to every last detail. Ultimately, you must really want it, and only you can do it for yourself. So, if you want to: * Bungle a relationship * Sabotage your career * Cheat on your latest diet this is the book to read. Lynn Phillips has written for a wide range of magazines including The Nation, Harvard Lampoon and Newsweek. She lives in New York.