James Acaster’s Guide to Quitting Social Media (17th August 2023)

This is a self-help book like no other. Because you are not helping yourself, James Acaster is helping you. In 2019, James quit all forms of social media – covering his phone in tar and driving it to a lock-up in Rhyl, before setting up home in a castle he’d built himself called Castle Anti-Net.

But when the withdrawal symptoms hit him, he realised in order to stay clean he’d have to replace everything social media gave him with three-dimensional, real-life activities. Employing the help of a mysterious, wealthy benefactor named Clancy Dellahue, and an ever-growing gang of misfits (aka the Tangfastic Crew), James found ways to replace his online friends (he joined the scouts) and spy on his exes (climbing ropes, zip lines, fake moustache) as well as anonymously bullying strangers, seeing photos of everyone’s dogs, getting public figures fired, arguing with everybody about everything, and so much more.