On the Other Hand: The Little Anthology of Big Questions by Renée Paule

Published: October 1st 2014 by RPG Publishing

Read Date: July 9th 2017

Stars: 5/5

On the Other Hand is Self-help, Non-Fiction book that will make you think and question everything you have known even yourself.
Here is little change. I can’t write a Non-fiction blurb and I love this Godreads blurb, so here it is-

Goodread Blurb-

A straight from the shoulder look at life in which the author asks some awkward questions we might prefer to swat away like an annoying fly. Questions like: Who am I? What is this life about? What is the mind? Why do we resist change? These are the questions we lock away in a tall tower like some inconvenient relative whose ‘lost her marbles’ and become an embarrassment to the family. Perhaps you’ve been asking ‘comfortable’ questions and avoiding the hard-hitting ones, preferring to hide away from them and pretend they don’t exist. We hope someone, somewhere, will put it all right for us. They won’t!
This book is not for the ‘faint of heart’ as it brings you face to face with yourself … but not the one you see when you look in the mirror. If you’ve locked yourself up in protective custody and thrown away the key, this book could well pick the lock and let you out again – if you’re ready to be let out. There’s something wonderful to discover if we care to take a look. If you’re prepared to be honest when thinking about the questions raised in this book and to be your own harshest critic, then pop over to the cash desk or place it in ‘your basket’ online and, go for it. You’re not alone and help is always available … far closer than you can imagine.
Unlike my other books, On The Other Hand is not illustrated.

My view:

 
I haven’t read any non-fiction, self-help book before except you consider a few articles. So when I started writing this review I was not sure what to write and where to start. So finally I decided, I will say what I understood from the book. Consider this more like a discussion than review.
The book was more of philosophical than self-help and also both at the same time. First two chapters a preface which gives the glimpse of author’s biography and introduction to the book why author wrote this book and what’s the intention behind it. Amazing start of the book which gave the clarity of what you are going read in the book. Loved this 2 chapters and I could feel author behind every words.
My favorite line from the book:

“If we get rid of doubter, and we can, we’ll feel much happier. The mind is a biggest doubter we’ll ever encounter and it’s keen to discourage us.”

Throughout the books few things author has said repeatedly and very clearly- First, you need to question everything. Questions are more important than answers. If you keep questioning, you understand the depth and value of questions. I found this very reasonable thing to do. I loved one example author gave in the book which I found very agreeable, the teaching system. We never question anything we are taught by teachers or parents who were taught by their teachers and so on. We just accept it without questioning. And if we do we are labelled “odd”. This reminded me of the movie, ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ in which father and son time travels to learn actual history which turned out quite different than we are taught in school.
Second, you need to change if you want to change everything around you. Start with yourself. This was not something new that author has said, we are listening this quite often but no one stick to it. I liked author’s style of making us realize why we need to do it. The question and thought provoking topic she covered this point throughout the book like, interaction, open-mindedness, cluttered mind, Comfort & security, fear, and many more.
Another thing was TV/Radio/Social Medias confuses everything more. Now I’m neutral for this.  You can’t blame everything on government as the government is formed by humans only. This I liked and I do agree with author here. Author encourages to view the world from another perspective, don’t be hypocrite and stereotype, and question everything.
And as for the answers, that you have to find yourself. The books will lead you though the different points and questions of that point to make it easier to find and understand questions. Book is not claiming to have all answers and also as author said it’s impossible to have all answers in this life time but this can change your view point towards the world and more toward yourself.
I felt this book need open, clear and adapting mind to understand very plain unveiled truth. As it is said in the blurb “it brings you face to face with yourself … but not the one you see when you look in the mirror.” So whoever is ready to face the questions, this book is for them. This is definitely heavy read, not a quick read and it does have thought changing effect. This is a kind of book I will reopen again and will read again. The more you re-read the more you understand.
The poem in chapter ‘Who am I?’ was very beautiful. I bookmarked that poem to read it again and again.

In few topics, it felt like it was jumping from one example to the other very fast with longer paragraphs that it was little difficult to follow. I was little confused at some point and I have to re-read it. So I would say take your own time to read this book. It’s not one sitting book.

On the Other Hand brought me back from fantasy, YA world to the reality.
Who should read it? I recommend it to everyone.

Author: Renée Paule

To know more about author click HERE.

Buy Here: Amazon.com | Amazon.in

*** Note: I received review copy of this book from author, in exchange for an honest review. I am glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

What do you think about the book and my review? Have you read this book or any book written by Renée Paule? Share your thoughts in the comment-box below.
Happy Reading! 🙂

–BT&R