Imagine finding social distancing comfortable. Since I could easily imagine it, I became interested in the author of an article to this effect by Olga Khazan that led me to this book. Who reads a book titled Weird anyway? The blurb says that most of us have felt that way at times, which suggests to me that the publisher had high hopes for this book--a readership of "most of us."

It turns out that this book is about successful people whose differences did not hold them back. I can see that as an appealing topic but, weirdly, it does not appeal to me. The supposedly weird Russian Jewish immigrant growing up in Texas was, for my tastes, even too successful as a child. She may have wanted to fit in (and what child does not!) and felt bad in her failures to do so, but either she didn't feel bad enough, or she didn't convey to me how painful her struggle was. And now, writing with such confidence on this topic makes her distinctly un-weird. Her ideas in this book are mostly mainstream, which, as a weirdo, I find offensive. In the end, lacking what it must take to finish it, I gave up reading this book.

More to my taste was [b:Hello Cruel World|7847732|Hello Cruel World|Kate Bornstein|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|11900] whose author reaches out to the weird offering alternatives to suicide. This was written by an author who clearly suffered for her weirdness and is reaching out to other sufferers to let us know how we might survive the cruelty which is the fate of the non-conforming. Thus, not how to succeed, but how to survive.