Let me share with you my reading goals for this year before we delve in. It’s nothing wild – I just want to read 50 books (at least ) and also read more fiction than I did last year. I’ve always been into self-help and personal

development books. I still am. However, I sometimes find myself going down a rabbit hole when it comes to self-help books.This can happen with any genre, but this is my experience.

I read some pretty good works of fiction last year – not exactly the popular ones, but still really good. A good story can take you on a journey with the characters whilst learning of their strengths and weaknesses, fears, and desires. They offer lessons from the character’s journey in refreshing ways that a non-fiction book might not.

Anxious people by Fredrik Backman was the first novel I read this year. I went to Pinterest for book ideas, and it popped up. I’d never heard of it before then, but the title was what prodded me into reading it. You mean to say there’s a book about anxious people ? Yes, my ears are tuned. ‘Fa hooki mi’.

I loved reading this book. It was hilarious and heartfelt at the same time. It had relatable themes and was a great start for the year.

Anxious people is a story that starts with a bank robbery. Well, it wasn’t exactly a bank robbery because how do you rob a cashless bank ? This ‘bank robbery’ then proceeds into a hostage situation which isn’t exactly a hostage situation.

In the writer’s own words, it’s mostly about idiots.
It’s a book that shows the lengths people will go for the ones they love.
It’s budding connection amongst unusual people. It’s a book about empathy and second chances.

The novel does a good job of showing the interconnectedness of society. It conveys how our actions,both good and bad, influence those around us knowingly and unknowingly. This book is hilarious and serious at the same time.

The author uses humour and satire to shed light on the human struggle. The desire to succeed, survive, live, and to love and how this struggle meddles in their decisions even if the decision is just another bad idea. Throughout the book, we learn of the burden that weighs the heart of each character – their anxieties.

For anyone that’s been sent in waves of shock in this whole ‘adulting’ thing, this author definitely understands. He shares some scenarios we can all relate to so well and also laugh about.

After reading the book, I did a little (okay, I got a wee bit obsessed) search on Google and realised there was a Netflix adaptation of this book. Disclaimer: Do not, and I repeat, do not have high expectations for a movie adaptation of any book you loved. (I should have learnt after watching the movie adaptation of ‘All the Bright Places’).

Here are a few favourite quotes from the book:

“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows. “

“We can’t change the world, and a lot of the time, we can’t even change people. No more than one bit at a time. So we do what we can to help whenever we get the chance, sweetheart. We save those we can. We do our best. Then we try to find a way to convince ourselves that that will just have to…be enough. So we can live with our failures without drowning.”

“Because you’ve probably been depressed yourself, you’ve had days when you’ve been in terrible pain in places that don’t show up in X-rays, when you can’t find the words to explain it even to the people who love you. Deep down, in memories that we might prefer to suppress even from ourselves, a lot of us know that the difference between us and that man on the bridge is smaller than we might wish.”

Do share in the comments box your favourite books far this year. 💜