The Confessions of a Misfit

by Mokokoma Mokhonoana

With this weird book Mokokoma wishes to achieve two things: (1) Remind the reader that we are all geniuses — the world is just overpopulated with drummers who sing and singers who play drums … to pay rent; and that (2) Life demands more thinking than remembering.

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Get my UNPUBLISHED aphorisms (“quotes”), every weekday, (for FREE, via my online School for Students of Life): https://mokokoma.com/newsletter

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mokhonoana is a self-proclaimed "Author of no best-seller." I came across this African author while listening to his opinions via a podcast about his thoughts on working as a graphic designer, and I was intrigued about some of his thoughts on valuing independent thinking and creativity, versus being a conformist because "it's the 'realistic' thing to do". This book is the antithesis of the concept of "groupthink." I found "Confessions of a Misfit" to be honest, funny, witty, and thought-provoking at the same time. While reading the first few pages, I knew that this would be a book that I would read and re-read for times to come. it is a book of short essays and writings that delve into several subjects, some related to one another and some not so much. He touches on entrepreneurship, dating, happiness, education, death, and being a professional creative among other things. Although, I wouldn't describe this as a self-help book it certainly has some of the makings of one, depending on how you apply the information to your own life.

The book has it's fair share of quotes sprinkled throughout by both known and unknown people, yet they are good quotes relevant to the information he discusses and his use of them doesn't make them come off as cliche'. My only qualm is that the reading flow of the book can be a bit choppy as he quickly switches from topic to, at times, totally unrelated topic.

These writings are merely the authors thoughts and opinions, and he doesn't try to pass them off as anything more. As he explores various subjects, Mokhonoana questions and challenges the status quo of society and promotes deeper and more critical thinking as well as a simpler way of life without being inundated with the plethora of useless and mundane information that we are bombarded with in our modern-day world. Hidden in his random rants are tokens and gems of enlightening information, moral lessons, and principles to live by. It's well-worth the read.

[SpookySoto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 😒 I didn’t like it.
Emotions: Disappointment, boredom, .
Recommended to: Nobody
¿Would I read anything else from him? No
2018’s around the year in 52 books: #17, A book you expect to make you laugh.
2018’s Marvel-A-Thon: Phase I, Iron Man2 An unpopular book.

A few years ago I discovered this book by a sarcastic quote in goodreads. I liked several of the essays but overall I found it repetitive, with conflicting views — he says he doesn’t own a tv and then says he saw something on tv—, it was boring and a bit pretentious.

I really don’t appreciate when people present entrepreneurship as something easy or universally fit to everyone. The reality is there are more entrepreneurial failures than there are successes. The other thing that bothered me a lot was his views on a traditional job, it’s obvious that his experiences as a freelancer has rendered him oblivious to the hardships of the real world.

I don’t recommend it.

[M. R Phora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it twice.

[Tbolife · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excellent read💯🔝👌

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't for me. I expected a connected sequence of progressively building chapters and instead discovered a random collection of repeating thoughts.