F?@k Knows by Shailendra Singh

Title : F?@k Knows
Author : Shailendra Singh
Genre : Non-Fiction / Self-Help
Publisher : Rupa Publications
Pages : 256
My Rating : 6/10
Reviewed For : Blogadda

Blurb:

 

Funny and candid, yet rich in insights on how to really live life on your own terms, this unconventional self-help manual is unlike any book around.

What do you want from life? Are you on the right track? Are you truly happy?
If your answer to these questions is F?@k knows!, then this book is for you.

Find the answers to life’s most important questions with the help of uber-successful entrepreneur, Shailendra Singh, co-founder of Percept and inceptor of Sunburn. Told with sparkling, flavourful and in-your-face humour, this book will advise you on how to:

• Find yourself (Because you’re probably lost. Admit it.)
• Follow your heart (Because if you don’t then you’ll die unhappy, you stupid f?@ker.)
• Achieve your goals (You know you want to.)
• Live life like you give a f?@k (Because...why not?)

Candid and thoughtful, F?@k Knows will show you how to really live life on your own terms, to do what you want to do and not what you have to do just because your father said so!

My Review:

So I have a confession to make & it is that, consciously I never ever pick up a self-help book. I rarely read them & less so follow them. My brief tryst with this genre started with “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” & ended with “The Alchemist”. In came along this read from Blogadda and I decided to give it a try & guess what?? I was not disappointed!! What sets this book apart from the others of its genre is that instead of being the usual boring & loaded with complex concepts, this a light and breezy read.

F?@K Knows has been written by Shailendra Singh, who has B.T.D.T. Been there. Done that. A sports marketing guru, an advertising whiz, a Bollywood producer, a shrewd dealmaker, founder of Percept Advertising – on first glance, one may think that he has it all sorted out. However, when twin tragedies strike in the form of his father’s death & his own near escape from death, the author suddenly finds himself asking some the most basic questions about his life. He then realized that he had been living it all wrong and did not want others to repeat the mistakes that he did. Hence, this book was born, where in 73 short chapters he talks about life’s lessons with humorous and interesting anecdotes.

The cover in all its bright yellow glory gets your attention where a man’s head surrounded by a multitude of choices is depicted. As you read the book, you realize that this cover is as apt as it can be since it’s all about the confusions faced by the youth of today. Happy or unhappy, lost or found, heart or mind – what does one follow when given a choice?? Well, I will leave that for you to discover as you read this book.

From the outset, this is a sort-of autobiographical book where the author has used his own experiences from personal &  professional life to give us lessons on life. The chapters are short, very random and that I think is the key to their effectiveness. The author does not use complex or flowery language, neither has he made an attempt to be preachy. He just narrates an anecdote from his life in each chapter in simple, lucid language & then goes on to point what he could have done & what he did instead. He had used everyday situations that all of us face from time-to-time & has effectively driven home the hard hitting facts about life. Though the writing is peppered with humor and the author makes light of every situation, this read will definitely make you stop & think about your own life.

The writer’s writing style is casual, humorous & witty. Thought provoking ideas are put across such that they are easy to grasp. The target audience here is the young crowd & people facing mid-life crisis. However, there is an overuse of the work “Fuck” & the read is laced with sexual anecdotes at some points. Needless to say, it might not go down well with some readers causing them to skip the entire read, terming it as fickle.

Definitely not ground-breaking but overall it is an entertaining read, about introspection, being lost, the road less travelled & self-discovery. Kudos to the author for the outright bold yet thought provoking debut effort.

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