The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin Sharma

This best selling book has been around for fifteen years. Non fiction, fiction, self help, it's not easy to catergorise, although bookshops obviously will, probably under New Age...But that's not meant to put you off. It's not a spiritual book although it sort of presents itself as such in order to tell the story, but it's not at odds with any religion or trying to get you to convert to anything in any way.

Written as fables within a fable its aim is to illustrate some principles for living. Told like a story to a friend so we too can listen in. Not entirely believable as there is some repetition and details that don't quite make sense. For example it's not explained how a remote tribe of people who no one local can find (although the foreign hero of the story does. Obviously) can live a simple life in the equivalent of mud huts but have access to a large library of modern books. There is a lot of repetition amongst speech so that phrases along the lines of 'if there's one thing I remember ' are said a lot which comes across as clumsy. In its defence and as a positive there is a lot to take in all under the guise of 'ancient' principles and although there are no formal exercises I did find myself taking a few notes and musing on some of the ideas.

Some of the chapters could be filed under productivity tools for hot shot business people, especially parts that touch on organisation and goal setting, although we could all do with some ideas for being more organised or getting more out of our days I think. Others are more about mindfulness and living in the present. Others again around the theme of self discipline, as you might expect from the monk in the title (so early rising, clean eatings, good habits etc)

I don't actually believe its possible to do everything it suggests. That would be overwhelming and probably annoying to those around you. Not to mention by the time you've done all the meditation, goal setting, physical and breathing exercises, journal writing etc etc you'd probably not have any time left to do the other things you're supposed to be doing. And as an aside - something I notice with all these sort of books - the hero and 'enlightened person' is always male. Possibly because a lot of women have family responsibilities etc so don't have time to wander off in search of the missing bits of their lives.

It's billed as a best seller and I've read good reviews about it and it's one of those books I felt I ought to be able to say I've read, but for me I'm not sure it lived up to its hype. I enjoyed it as a fable and there are some things to think about and maybe try out, but it didn't leave me entirely energised and raring to jump in to the world it promised. So not a truly terrible book but just not 5 star either