Fuck This Journal is an inspired and hilarious swipe at all those think positive books that claim to encourage your creativity. If you see ‘meaningful’ saccharine quotes overlaid on photos of sunsets and roll your eyes: this is the book for you. If you’ve ever read a ‘creatively stimulating’ tome, or sat through a lesson engaged in an arty exercise: this book is for you.
At a time when colouring books are marketed at adults, this is a refreshingly droll look at instigating your ‘cre-hate-tivity’. Full of comic drawings and amusingly pointless exercises, such as: ‘Let’s adopt a trick from Ernest Hemingway. He said “when I seek inspiration I write the word ‘inspiration’ over and over again” Hey! Why not give it a try in the space below?’ This is a book that’s sure to raise a laugh and a half.
Managing to introduce a narrative into the collection of witty and dour illustrations and 
exercises, Shaw’s bitter alter ego reveals a story of: divorce from Carol, near bankruptcy, and thwarted dreams. I have certainly met this hard done by, chip on the shoulder type in pubs and creative writing classes before, which adds a deliciously satirical layer to the book. Fuck This Journal is a genuinely unique comic work. Buy this as a gift for yourself and all the creatives in your life. That’s Christmas sorted.
Fuck This Journal by Dale Shaw: Fucking buy this 5/5