Born to be Mild

This book tosses you into the midst of Rob’s life after his marriage has failed, he’s in recovery for alcoholism, he’s doing a job he enjoys from his parents’ couch and not much else. He’s super anxious, awkward with people, and is much more comfortable staying in than anything else.

But as anyone with social anxiety can tell you, while staying in feels good, it also starts feeling like crap and you feel like you should push yourself to go out and do like everyone else.

This book is a bunch of Rob doing just that and learning what “adventure” means to him.

Book summary (per Goodreads):

A handful of years ago I moved with my wife to a house on a quiet street in a quiet town and lay quietly in a room for a long time.

I used to love an adventure, and I had jobs on magazines (remember magazines?) which provided the opportunity for plenty of them, but when I hit my thirties I started to become increasingly afraid of the world, until I was too frightened to even go outside at all. And I had no need to go outside: I’d somehow wangled it so my job was mostly tweeting, which meant no colleagues, no bosses, no office, no alarm clock, no deadlines . . . just me, my phone and my social media feeds. Doesn’t sound too healthy, does it? It wasn’t.

Everything went bad.

Rob Temple runs a social-media empire from the comfort of his sofa. Living the dream! But what happens when a lack of colleagues, bosses and alarm clocks means that your sofa, and the four walls of your very quiet living room, become your whole world?

In this tender and life-affirming memoir, Rob explores what it will take for him to become a little less Bear (Pooh) and a little bit more Bear (Grylls), and how mild-mannered, anxious rule-followers can get their own share of (gentle) adventure from time to time.