Book review- 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest

This book amassed the highest rating on social media in recent years. And frankly, this is the prime reason for me to read it.

But, (sadly!!) my opinion rather than the verdict is that the book is not-that-good.

For me, the hype of the book is the classic case of media-driven marketing for a lazy attempt to assemble a bunch of write-ups (and not essays…as the book title says) claiming to be a self-help book.

An Internet search shows Brianna Wiest is a 29 years old blogger-turned-writer. This book is an anthology of her published work on her blog. The featured pieces align to topics like… why one should pursue purpose over passion, embrace both negative and positive thinking to keep oneself on track, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way one sees her/his life…and these are the "glam" arena for the book.

I do not hate this book (or the young author…as I feel that "human age" has no link to "soul wisdom"),  I just didn't find it useful for my needs.

I find that few essays are very well written, didactic, and nattily focused while others completely lack substance. The book varies from a contrast of some high-quality personal development insights jotted down as per the experience of the writer to some not-so-worth investing time type re-telling of repetitive Gyan (which made it very bulky to finish the full read of the book)

Quotes from the chapters –

"Extraordinary depends on what I do with the ordinary"

“Make sure you’re living more than you’re thinking about living.”

“You cannot save up your happiness; you can either feel it at the moment, or you miss it. It’s that simple.”

“Don’t confuse a broken dream with a broken future.”

“The world is not as it is, it is as we are.”

(Count down to 100...93th Blog post 😇)