Change Your Life in 365 Days

If you buy one book this year—one book, that is, to make you laugh every day, add some absurdity to your life, and generally have a good time—Benrik’s This Book Will Change Your Life is it.

I bought this book years ago before I had my daughter and forgot all about it. Recently, while rescuing a few book tubs from my parents’ basement and bringing them to our house, I stumbled upon it and immediately started cracking up. If you can’t find at least a dozen things in this book to add to your Living To Do List, it’s a sad day, indeed.

You know your life isn’t complete until you eat nothing but asparagus for an entire day just to see how rancid your pee will get. Surreptitiously giving people the finger all day in lots of weird ways is sure to complete your life. And you know you’ve always wanted to make a 2-D voodoo doll!

Benrik’s book is filled with goofy suggestions, diagrams, full-color photos, drawings, black and white illustrations, and room for you to write in what you did and how you did it. Sure, there are some things you can actually do without breaking into fits of laughter—such as selling something you’ve made—but why do it conventionally when you can do it Benrik’s way?

Have you ever tried ordering an impossible pizza (such as one laden with Cheerios)? Have you ever lied to someone about your past just for the hell of it? If not, try ordering a gummy bear, cheese puff and cat clipping pizza from Domino’s and tell the delivery guy that you’re Oscar Wilde’s illegitimate great-great-grandchild.

Here are some more ideas from Benrik’s book that you might want to add to your Living To Do List:

• Go without your senses, such as by gargling with antiseptic to numb your throat before eating
• Write to the government and ask that a street be named after you
• Trace your high school sweetheart and offer to meet up
• Use the word “vortex” in every conversation you have for the whole day

If you want more ideas, you’re going to have to check out this fabulous book.

I just discovered that Benrik has a bunch of other similar books, all filled with the same “365 Daily Instructions for Hysterical Living.” I can’t wait to purchase them and try them out as well!