Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Pug is an Asshole | 2017 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
| 2 | What Was I Thinking? | 2017 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
| 3 | Is Writing | 2017 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
| 4 | All the Ways I Think You’re a C*nt | 2018 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
| 5 | im fine | 2020 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
| 6 | My Pug is STILL an asshole | 2022 | Matt Shaw | Buy |
Matt Shaw’s non-fiction output is a direct contrast to his horror fiction: these books are personal, often funny, and written in an unfiltered first-person voice that feels less constructed than his horror work. The two Pug books, My Pug is an Asshole (2017) and My Pug is STILL an asshole (2022), are exactly what the titles suggest: comic accounts of living with a difficult dog. They have found an audience well beyond Shaw’s horror readership and are regularly cited as good gifts for dog owners with a sense of humor.
Is Writing (2017) is the most practically useful book in this section for aspiring authors. Shaw covers self-publishing, productivity, and the realities of building a readership from scratch, drawing on his own experience of publishing dozens of titles independently. It is candid about the grind involved and does not pretend the process is more romantic than it is. What Was I Thinking? covers some of the same personal candor but from a memoir angle, recounting decisions Shaw regrets or finds baffling in retrospect.
im fine (2020), published during lockdown, is the most emotionally direct of the non-fiction titles and deals with mental health in Shaw’s characteristically blunt fashion. It sits alongside the horror catalogue as a useful reminder that the person behind the extreme fiction is not simply a shock-merchant, but a writer who processes genuine experience through his work.