Stepping into a book store is a fascinating experience for any book reader or a book lover. If you are a bookworm, you will know the difference between the one who “loves a book” and the one who “reads a book”. While a book reader doubles up as a book lover too, a book lover is not necessarily a book reader! Some of us just love to keep books; and some of us read them too!
This variation was all the more obvious the other day when I visited a book store to select a book as a gift for my friend, a “book lover”, who’s been trying desperately to become a “book reader” sooner or later.
The book store was milling with crowds. It was unusual. It was a pretty small store with a good mix of fiction and non-fiction books. I curiously went around to check if there was any massive discount offer that brought in so many. No discounts. I found that the main attraction was the row of books that displayed non-fiction, particularly self-help books. “Self-help” books are a perennial attraction. Who doesn’t want a self-help book that promises a total transformation of one’s self?
My yearning was to transform my ‘book lover’ friend into a ‘book reader’ one! Not at all my job, you say… right? Yet I decided to go further, looking around for a tempting title that goes like this – “How to win/ How to earn/ How to become/ How to make and so on. Compelling titles that instantly lift our hearts and our minds!
I have heard time and again many book lovers sharing strategies as to how to extract maximum success from these self-help books. If you think that optimum achievement goes to one who completes reading the book in one sitting, you are thoroughly mistaken. In fact, many believe that the opposite is the key to success! And that is, one need not read those books at all. Buy them and store them. Or better still, throw a couple of them on the desk in one’s room and feel the vibrations emanating from the books! No matter whether you read them or not! It is suffice that you put them on display at prominent locations in the house and experience the pulsating vibes that reach you from those vantage points. You will begin to feel good already… some strategy!
When Marc Maron, the American comedian and actor says,
“Every book is a self-help book to me. Just having them makes me feel better”,
we understand how books have the power to influence us even before we start reading them. Even before we start working out a strategy to unravel the secrets to success embedded in between their pages!
I have always considered self-help books as cerebral stuff. They are indeed brain gyms that increase intelligence, train our brains to resist distractions, maintain one’s focus, revitalise memory skills and introduce us to ways and means of sharpening our life skills through rational and scientific exercises, duly providing data to support their strategies. Read them if you are all set to rewire your thought processes and reinvent yourself. However it takes a lot of courage to accept your deficiencies and strength to realize that a positive intervention is essential to bring about the desired changes that the books recommend.
There are no stories that self-help books intend to tell us. It is more of an intellectual exercise to awaken your brain and shatter the vulnerable notions that we have hitherto encouraged. Our obsession to give positive twists to all the endeavours in our lives drives us to these books. Self-help books are generally considered to be meant for those who aspire to be successful. Hence those who are highly motivated are likely to benefit from the prescriptions recommended by them. For those who want to make a change and break new grounds, consulting self-help books might probably be a good start. It might give a sense of direction and positive intervention. But it may not be a perfect fit for everyone.
And that brings us to the recurring question; do we really want to undergo that transformative experience to emerge with a crown of success studded with vital accomplishments? Isn’t life more about unexpected episodes of happiness and sudden bouts of accomplishments? Such precious perspectives of life, though far and few, are also likely to offer us new angles to look at and new paths to tread upon without strategizing our moves to become more disciplined and resolute.
“Sometimes when I watch my dog, I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn’t read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just IS a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make both her and me happy”.
Doesn’t this quote strike a chord in your heart? Yes, Donald Miller, the successful business head and author is right after all! I for one, would love be to be like Lucy, shedding all the illusions and cravings for success. And be happy and content with the occasional treats and adventures that come my way!
Now, what book should I pick up for my friend? My search continued until I hit upon “Meditations’’ by Marcus Aurelius.
“Meditations” is a compilation of philosophical reflections of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor from 161 AD to 180 AD. Recorded as a private journal by Marcus Aurelius, the book has bagged the distinction of being the world’s most influential book. In fact, it is widely considered as the best self-help book which strongly recommends pursuit of wisdom and virtue as ultimate goals of human life. Handing out timeless wisdom and practical advice in abundance, the book helps in dealing with one’s challenges in life with strength of mind and composure, thus motivating the reader to strive towards personal excellence and success. A calm mind and a stoic outlook beget quality thoughts that are indispensable for a happy life, he says.
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
I can hear Marcus Aurelius clinching his arguments with a certainty when he shows the way to go forward. The book was a good choice after all. A one stop solution to all our debates and doubts about man and his mission on earth.
I walked out of the store with two copies of ‘Meditations’. One for my friend who’s a book lover; the other one for me, a book lover and book reader. I am going to let it lie on the living room couch and meditate about ‘Meditations” and inhale its positive vibrations! Even Mark Twain vouches for it….
“In a good book room you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”
Self-help books have an enticing lure. And in my quest to become a better version of myself, I will let myself to be lured ….. regardless of my aspiration or perspiration ….. into that serene zone of purposeful living.
Marcus Aurelius is still relevant even after nearly 2000 years, speaking to us and assuring us that even if you have lost everything, there still is a lot more left in life to love, learn and live honourably.
Certainly there is a lot we owe this man than anyone else!
Myriad Moods of Sudha 