F?@K Knows....Reviewed

I remember raising my eyebrows at the title when I had first seen this book at the Delhi book fair.  So when it was up for review at BlogAdda I instantly applied. And am still unsure if I’m happy I did.

This book may come under the category of both self-help books & may be also an autobiography. After all Shailendra Singh shares a lot from his own personal experiences in this book. If you are looking for a Shiv Khera style rendition on self improvement then you may not like this one.  If what you want is someone causally preaching from his life’s experiences in a light-hearted friendly way then F?@K Knows is for you.

This book claims to help you find yourself, start believing & trusting your heart, thereby achieving your goals & live life “like you give a f?@k”. May be because I read this book with the intention of reviewing it, I did not exactly feel this would help me achieve any of the above claims. Yes Shailendra Singh is right, he does make sense but then some of these stuffs have been around for ages. We all know these things & I shall just give Mr.Singh credit for putting it back into our lives.

Some of my favourite chapters were on the lesser stressed out topics in self-help books, like the ones on eating right. The connection between eating right, thus staying healthy and similarly feeding your mind with the right thoughts to keep it sane was beautifully explained. I do admit though I am a bit skeptical about the whole “Chi F?@k” thing. I am all for the theoretical ‘gyaan’ & frankly can’t ever imagine trying out something like Chi F?@k Po! (Read the book if you want to know what it’s about)

Although clichéd I liked the idea of creating a bucket list or F?@k List as Singh calls it. We may not all have the courage to listen to our guts every time or have the guts to practise the unique techniques explained by Singh. The least we can do is to create a bucket list-not just something that we want to achieve before we die, a bucket list for every day of our lives. Setting goals for each day when we wake up, is an idea I really appreciate.

Now coming to the reasons why I think you may not like the book. First of course there is the free usage of the ‘F’ word. That’s not as bad as you think if you’ve ever heard of Osho’s explanation of the word. This book is for adults & if you’re intolerant of a bit of cheeky language then let this be a warning- the book has a lot of it!(what else do you expect from a book titled as such?) Also at some points I feel the writer is just a tad disorganized. It feels less like a book & more like reading someone’s thoughts-unfiltered, un-categorized thoughts.

Though F?@k Knows feels nothing like a debut, it is the first attempt at writing by Shailendra Singh & also one of the things-to-do on his F?@k It list. As a debut author I’d give him full marks, he has tried to be as helpful as possible & it’s one of the rare books that preaches but doesn’t bore you. There are interesting anecdotes & practical gyaan to some extent yet it failed to impress me. My personal opinion-not everyone can practically assimilate the steps mentioned here in real life & F?@k Knows at one point starts becoming one of those books that you buy, read once & forget all about it the other day. 

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!