What is the reason behind picking a self-help book? How do you choose which one to go for? What do you expect from it? And more importantly, how do you read it?
While you ponder over the above questions, let me introduce the book briefly:
Title: The Comfort Book
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Canon Gate
Pages: 260
Genre: Self-help, Inspirational
Price: Rs. 378 (blinkit)
I’ll add one more to what’s there among hundreds of reviews from several newspapers, news channels and reviewers, placed at the start and the end of the book:
You want to comeback to ‘The Comfort Book’ time and again and each time, you’ll find that it’s still afresh and inspires you the same way it did the last time.
I hadn’t come across this book anytime soon unless one of my friends had gifted it on my birthday. Even before I finished the last one, I decided to begin with it. To quote the reason, I would say that I wanted something light, crisp and impacting. It also had to do with the situation I was going through. I guess these are the reason enough for a person to go for a self-help genre. For a month, I took this book wherever I went. For instance, cafes, departments, homes, libraries, exam centres, concerts, gardens and while travelling. I read a few significant pages at each of these places and that’s how I came toward its end.
To begin with, this book is divided into four sections, each containing topics related to life or problems, or challenges, or simply for inspiration. These topics have been elucidated to mostly half a page, sometimes one and a few extending to two. I’ll place it in the category of ‘chewed and digested’ in Francis Bacon’s quote, which I can recall at this moment. Altogether, it serves as a guide to lead a happy and blissful life without forcing anything on you. Let’s look at this bold and ‘nomadic’ kind of note on the structure of this book.
Author Haig also supports and supplements his arguments with quotes and real-life examples, that enrich the book and make it more than just a reading exercise.
To chew and digest, I would suggest you to read some pages each day, followed by contemplating on it. Also, relating to your life or conscience would give purpose to your reading. Don’t rush to read or in a hurry to finish it. Take your time. You can read it with the other book. You can also begin your day or end it while reading a couple of pages. Don’t be afraid of revisiting it. You know, I forgot to keep a bookmark in this book and many a time, I would end up reading the pages which I already have read. To my surprise, it was as interesting as my first reading.
The only thing which I felt missing in this book is ‘direction’ which I think reader will construct by themselves. ‘The Comfort Book’ must be a part of your collection if you ever feel yourself slipping in abyss. This book will pull you up!
Also, my heartiest thanks to ‘Mitali’ for gifting me this beautiful book.
©Shashank
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