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Read This to Look Cool
  • Published: 14 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781464220449
  • Imprint: Sourcebooks
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $34.99
Categories:

Read This to Look Cool

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For fans of Dolly Alderton or Samantha Irby, Read This to Look Cool is a hilarious and insightful collection of essays exploring the woes of growing up online, social anxiety, and constantly trying to portray an artificial version of yourself.

This book won't fix you, but imagine how cool you'll look carrying it around…

Maeve Dunigan has poured a lifetime of effort into seeming effortlessly chill. The results have been … mixed. Nonetheless, Maeve still believes she's one pair of leather pants, one perfect use of the word "bespoke," and one jar of expensive olives away from self-actualization. She'll never stop trying, no matter how bespoke things get (was that right?).

With sharp wit and unflinching honesty, Maeve shares her own misadventures—like the time she quietly endured a ruptured appendix at McDonald's so she wouldn't come off as dramatic—and explores the universal desire to belong. She invites readers into her world of One Direction fanfiction authorship and passive-aggressive yogurt mind games, detailing the anxieties that come with living in an age of constant visibility.

Both cringe-inducing and uproarious, Read This To Look Cool is a deeply relatable meditation on the absurdity inherent in the constant performance of ourselves, offering a fresh perspective on self-love and the true meaning of cool. It's a book that says "I see you" and also "Don't look at me, though, my hair is doing something weird."
  • Published: 14 July 2026
  • ISBN: 9781464220449
  • Imprint: Sourcebooks
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $34.99
Categories:

About the author

Maeve Dunigan

MAEVE DUNIGAN is a contributing satirist for The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and Reductress. During the day, she works as a staff writer for The Dodo, where she sources, reports, and writes stories about animals doing all sorts of funny, heartwarming things. She holds a Master’s in American Journalism from New York University, where she focused on the intersections of humor and media. For more, check out her website: maevedunigan.com.
MD

Praise for Read This to Look Cool

This book is laugh out loud funny and reading it will make you look cool. I would be caught dead with this book. If my corpse held a copy in an open casket, I would be the life of the party. Metaphorically. That’s how good this book is.

Johnathan Appel, staff writer, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

God, Maeve Dunigan can WRITE! Reading this won't just make you look cool. It'll make you at least 87% cooler, guaranteed.

Jennie Egerdie, author of Frog and Todd Are Doing Their Best

This essay collection is hilarious and heartfelt. It gave me a much-needed escape from my internal monologue, and after I finished it, I had a newfound appreciation for the voice in my head that never stops talking. Read This to Look Cool is perfect for fans of funny essays and anyone who spends way too much time analyzing their emails.

Ysabel Yates, co-author of Jokes to Offend Men

I promise that reading this collection of relatable personal calamities on the subway will make you look cool to your fellow commuters.

Emma Allen, humor and cartoon editor, The New Yorker

We all owe Maeve Dunigan a debt of gratitude for writing a book so sharp, so smart, and so funny, that you'll be so happy you picked it up to read instead of picking up your phone. This book is for anyone who has navigated the bumpy transition between the person you are and the confident, assured version of yourself you hope to be. Call Maeve Spartacus, because we are her and she is all of us. If you ever in your life have worried about looking cool (and who hasn't), you don't have to worry anymore. All you have to do is read this.

Lana Schwartz, author of Set Piece

This book taught me three things: One, I’m not cool. Two, I don’t need to be. Three, Maeve is very funny. And four, I can’t count.

Eli Grober, The New Yorker contributor and author of This Won’t Help

I’m a longtime fan of Maeve's short humor, and was delighted to find out that she's fluently funny when writing about her own life too. Her personal essays are a wonderful complement to her fiction, and I loved reading about her family's cult-film fame, the rollercoaster of Glee fandom, and being too high at a Hozier concert. Read This to Look Cool is touching, funny, and very smart.

James Folta, editor of Points in Case

Maeve Dunigan's hilarious debut is a balm in a world that demands perfection. It's silly, self-deprecating, and full of heart. Finally, someone speaks to the truly insidious nature of the Cha Cha Slide.

Lillian Stone, author of Everybody’s Favorite