Well, to be honest, this was an impulse purchase while at the airport waiting for my flight, and I had mixed feelings when I finished reading it by the end of the day (or was it the next day !).
As you may have guessed, I fell for the intriguing title of the book, anxious to find some pearls of wisdom, as it mentioned "simple ways to lead a happy life" on the cover. Though the book is not in the ’self-help’ genre, it makes for good light-hearted read, which can act as a stress-buster at the end of a hard day.
This recent book by K. Ajayakumar, an engineer turned HR professional, is a collection of anecdotes (the author likes to call them ’jokes’ though). Those of you who have read Reader’s Digest, it may remind of you of the section "Life’s like that".
The jokes are categorized in alphabetical order of heading, and each joke is followed by a "Reflection" which something of a ’moral of the story’. While I had already read or heard of many of the jokes, some ’Reflections’ left me dumb-founded.
The book makes for easy reading, and is basically a collection of anecdotes or snippets, many of which one would have read or heard of from various sources anyways. So, how much you enjoy reading the book depends on your familiarity with the content.
Frankly, I am not one of those who can laugh at the same joke twice. Am sure any reasonably well-read (or outgoing) person would have come across many of the ’jokes’ in the book, starting with their High School.
Perhaps, the college-going folks or those starting their careers would enjoy the book more, as many jokes are on corporate workplace.Compared to the Chetan Bhagat best-sellers I picked up as impulse purchases for much less (less than Rs. 100, if I remember), this one for Rs. 195 is not quite worth the price.
But then, humour is subjective, so many people may like the book, or like to gift it to teenagers known to them.