4 out of 4 stars
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There are lots of books that help people quit things cold turkey, and Anti-Habit System by Aleksandra Anonymous is definitely not one of them. Instead of promoting the sudden stop of bad habits, she instead suggests cutting back on them, ultimately aiming to change them from habits to things that you control. Instead of smoking a whole pack of cigarettes in a day habitually, for example, the goal would instead be to smoke when you want. In addition to smoking, the main habits covered also include drinking, drugs and unhealthy foods.
I'm going to be completely honest: I expected to dislike this book shorty after I started reading it. The writing didn't really flow and the setup was going nowhere fast, and that's in addition to the fact that most extra-short books are usually lackluster. However, once Aleksandra began discussing specifics (around 10% of the way into the 29-page book) the book majorly turned around. This isn't a scientific book, in fact it's written as if she's simply speaking to us, but that certainly doesn't make the book any less worth reading.
The focus on the book, as Aleksandra puts it, is to bend the habit, not break it. After a bit of discussion about herself, she details how she bent her habit with liquor, swapping from shots of hard liquor to dry wine. She had read that drinking some dry wine a day is actually healthy, and once she tried the swap she learned it gave her a buzz and helped her relax without leaving her with a hangover. She does the same with smoking - first by restricting herself from smoking in the house so that each cigarette had to be a choice, not a habit. After this, she swapped to rolling her own to save money and even replaced cigarettes during the day with e-cigarettes.
After discussing her strategies with drinking and smoking, as well as a bit about drugs (hence her anonymity), she points out the importance of exercise and how to replace bad habits with it. Finally, in the end, she has a rather nifty table that lays out the changes she made herself over half a year. The fact that she was able to make major changes herself and show them off attests to the wisdom in this short book.
I was really surprised by Anti-Habit System. It's so short, yet still has some great information in it. I feel really odd giving a book less than 30 pages a 4 star rating, but the stumbling in the first few pages isn't enough to knock a star off from the excellent-yet-simple information the rest of the book contains. Her writing was also far from clinical - she felt relatable and genuine, which makes her strategies more believable. Therefore, I'm giving the book 4 out of 4 stars despite how short it is. Anyone with bad habits can get some use from it, especially those who want to break the habits she broke (and who aren't seriously addicted and in need of assistance beyond books).
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Anti-Habit System
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