Past Dwellers by Samridh Seth (Book Review: 3.75*/5) !!!

 

38^th Book of 2020

 

I have read two thrillers – psychological and romantic back to back after which I needed a non-fiction book to open my perspective again. It happens when you read too much of fiction you start behaving like those characters sometimes hence it’s necessary to get back to reality as soon as possible. And what a nice light motivating and self-help book I landed upon- the book is named “Past Dwellers” written by a first-time author, Samridh Seth, who has just touched 20 years of age. A tagline also goes along with the title of the book that says “Change your mindset to change your life”. The cover page is very attractive with neurons working in a human brain over a white cover page with the title of the book shining in the black font.

 

This 110-pages book is a short self-help book which you can complete within 1 to 1.5 hours. It is divided into short chapters of around 3-4 pages along with diagrammatical representations which makes it interesting for the readers as we get a chance to get into the author’s mind completely. Samridh has used his own past experiences in order to share with us how he was wrong at that point of time and what he learnt from it. He also shares several real-life examples and also quotes wordings of some popular personalities in order to prove his points. You will acknowledge everything the author says. There are many mature statements in the book which really moved me even when the author is just 20 years old and me having experience of reading so many books in this genre.

 

Author talks on various topics such as humility, importance of time management, trying various activities to be prepared to get into any of them in bad times, money management, stock marketing, dreams, goals, body management – working-out, meditation – working on the mind, friendships etc. I liked the approach of the author the way he has used references and metaphors to make his concepts interesting and distinct such as Palm trees, pyramid etc. One can talk on any topic that Seth has included in the book for 100 pages but he stays focused on the topic by only mentioning worthy sentences and ensuring that he covers the most within 3-4 pages itself.

 

Samridh has written this book in a very easy language which can be read and understood by a school-going kid as well as an adult. Another USP is that every age-group shall be able to learn something out of the book irrespective of the author’s age. I also liked the flow of the chapters where author didn’t spend much time in talking about himself or his experiences but immediately moved on to the topic. You can easily finish this book within a sitting itself. There are many quotes that you would want to keep with you which can definitely motivate you.

 

Now, talking about the drawbacks- the first one is the pricing of the book which is around 345 INR. I doubt if many readers can afford a 100-page book for such a big amount. Secondly, I felt that author cut-short many topics where there could have been more elaboration or explanation. For e.g. Author talks about managing mind but how it needs to be done is not helped with. There are many such instances.

 

Overall, this is a fine and positive read. I give this book 3.75* out of 5. Such an experienced writing from the author at this young age was really a surprise for me.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE!!!

 

Thanks.

 

WRITING BUDDHA