11 Rules for Life - Review

This is a spoiler-free post. Read on safely :)

A few weeks ago, I was on a call with a classmate of mine to work on a course project. We were working pretty late, and for a brief while, his cousin joined us. It was fun to talk to someone who is a few years into your stream. Gives you a brief overview of the future you think you want. When the conversation drifted towards books, he told me about this recent book he read. It was the 11 rules for life, by Chetan Bhagat. I told him I had seen it on the author’s Instagram page, and he proceeded to talk about the book, and how he found it different. At first, I asked if he found any resemblance between this and “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. He hadn’t read the book, apparently. I joked about it and mentioned it kinda was the same but presented the ideas in a different narrative. Our conversation ended on a good note, and so did my project. 

One day at the final exam of my fourth semester, the very subject for which I was doing that project, I saw the book go on sale. I quickly ordered a hard copy of it. It arrived as soon as I completed my exam, and I picked it up later that night. Over the next two days, I binge-read as frequently as I could, and I finished it.

Was the book life-changing? Probably not for me. But there were two things about the book that got me hooked. One, it was well-suited for a quick read. For someone who had to take a sabbatical from intensive reading due to exam prep and somehow witnessed the habit wither away, the book was well-paced and not so boring in terms of advice (since it’s a self-help book, I was expecting a lot of “Do this, do that”. They were there, but not in an open-ended way.) Second, I really admired how the author had been candid in certain instances. It made the reading experience realistic. 

I’ve read other Chetan Bhagat books. And I’ve read quite a few self-help books too. Not a huge fan, but I do need my “in my productive era” sessions once in a while. But this book pointed out where I could find a few missing pieces in my puzzle. So overall, if you’re looking for an actionable read, you should definitely give this a try.