Rediscovering the Joy of Reading

I saw this book lying around at my sister-in-law's place, and it suddenly triggered a memory of someone recommending it as a must-read. Naturally, I asked if I could borrow it, and in a heartbeat, she said yes.

It’s important to note that I haven’t picked up and read a book in a while. The last reflective or story-based book (which is also my preferred genre) I read was Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, and that was perhaps one to two years ago.

What Makes This Book Special?

Since then, I’ve read The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (completed, yay!), Zero to Hero (I’m getting there…promise!), and Coaching A-Z by Haesun Moon (a medley of short stories and reflective questions—a good read, but not one that keeps me turning pages. It’s more of a good pick-me-up, if you know what I mean).

So, with no expectations in mind except that it came highly recommended, I started reading—and I COULD NOT STOP! I finished the book in a week, and that’s only because I had to take breaks and get back to living life. If I had my way, I’d have holed myself up in a cave and finished it in one sitting. But alas, as it is, I still need to comply with the non-hermit way of living.

What is the Book About?

As mentioned, it’s fiction, but at the same time, it contains many reflective questions about life—the ones we think about ALL THE TIME. Questions like: What if I chose that path? What if I never broke up? What if I did well in school? What if I picked a different university? What if I never had kids? What if I had kids? This book literally presents the idea of living a life without "what ifs."

The protagonist is stuck in limbo between life and death, and in this limbo, there’s a library with every single choice she made differently, each represented as a book. She has the opportunity to explore every single one. Isn’t that just everyone’s dream (in a way) to see the life you could have live?

What Got Me So Hooked?

The introspection and reflectiveness it brought about in my own life. How often do we mull over potential "what ifs"? For some, it’s just a fleeting thought—maybe a minute, an hour, or a couple of days. For others, it can last years—a bad breakup, a failed business, bankruptcy, and never being able to move past it. Being stuck at a crossroad for years, consumed by "what ifs," never really moving on and living life. Isn’t it crazy?

Biggest Lesson Learned

“You could be as honest as possible in life, but people only see the truth if it is close enough to their reality.”

Perspective Shift

Coming out of that 100-day journey, just like the protagonist in her library, nothing has changed…but everything has changed. The lens through which you see the world, your life, how you live, and what you create—it all shifts. Now, you make conscious decisions about each choice, even the ones you leave unmade.

Like I mentioned, for the longest time, I played the victim, blaming everyone—the spineless con-artist who called himself a guru, playing the savior to lure us into the world of passive income while truthfully just lining his own pockets; the person who introduced me to this; the mentor I trusted to guide me on my property journey, who ended up betraying me; the government, which I blamed for not being diligent enough to protect people from falling prey to such schemes; and even my parents, for not having the insight or foresight to warn me against it. And most importantly myself, I blamed myself for falling into such a too-good-to-be-true-scheme, naivety, though this is probably a story for another day, who I became after. Simply put, there were a lot of people I blamed—and could blame.

But the fact of the matter is, what’s done is done. Just like in chess, the question becomes: what are the best moves I can make from the choices I’ve already made? For me, that meant learning how to rent out my properties strategically to maximize rental income and cover as much of the mortgage as possible. Honestly, whether a choice is good or bad often shifts with perspective and outcomes.

When I first got my properties, people considered me lucky. I knew someone who had spent a year preparing his financial profile, only for it to go to waste because he couldn’t secure a 90% loan.

Then, when everything fell apart—court cases, abandoned projects—I was considered unlucky. That same person, who had no properties, was now viewed as lucky because he wasn’t bogged down by the burdens I was facing.

But who knows? Maybe one day, if I sell these properties and make a decent profit, I’ll be considered lucky again. If I sell them at a loss, I’ll likely be deemed unlucky.

Ultimately, whether a choice is seen as good or bad depends heavily on the outcome—and outcomes are ever-changing.

TL;DR

This is a good book—very reflective. It hooks you on every page, diving deep into a person’s psyche and exploring why they are the way they are with the choices they made. If you’re looking for a book, I highly recommend it!

10/10 for me.