Ikigai — Book Review

What is Ikigai? Why does it matter? In the book, “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, written by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, they explore Ikigai, and how to apply the mindset of the centenarians of this world.

This is my honest opinion on this book, and though I will summarise the book somewhat, if you specifically want a summary, this is not the article for you.

What The Book Is About

This book is mainly an exploration and investigation of the world’s centenarians — people who live past their 100s. How they live, how they approach life, those types of things. The main focus is on the Okinawans (mainly the island with the most centenarians) in Japan, and their “Ikigai”.

The book dances around with different ways the centenarians — those in the blue zone — live. So although the title is “Ikigai”, they also touch on other “blue zones” around the world, and the commonalities between them. The book is fairly short, so if you wish to dive deeper into these concepts and ideas of the centenarians, I would recommend “The Blue Zones” titles (there are currently 7). The one I’ve flipped through is the first book, “The Blue Zones: Lessons For Living Longer From The People Who’ve Lived The Longest” by Dan Buettner. He writes about similar concepts, one of which is Ikigai. He writes about actual people who are centenarians, life examples to show exactly what he means. For those that like a more dense, real life show, this is probably the book you should reach for instead of this book.

Ikigai is like a condensed version of The Blue Zone, more focused on Ikigai, and Okinawa, Japan. It also lacks the case studies that The Blue Zone offers. You should read whatever you prefer. And for those that enjoy Ikigai and want to go into further details, you’ll likely find yourself reading The Blue Zone anyways.

Both books have some real life, practical applications written in its pages. Ikigai touches on some ways to introduce movement into your routine through different practices across the world, and The Blue Zone should have some practical applications (I haven’t read it thoroughly).

These books contain wise words from those that have lived for around a century, and if you have never heard about them before, you’ll be amazed at how they live their life.

Ikigai

A brief description of what Ikigai actually means. It has Japanese origins, and basically is “the reason you get out of bed”. Essentially, your purpose in life. This can be something like seeing your grandchildren, or caring for a garden.

Book Review

Honestly, I am not a good reviewer, so take my words as a grain of salt.

I liked how it was fairly short. I also liked how it mixed information and applications to real life into its texts. It was also fairly fun to read, and spoke wise words.

Since I kind of read (flipped through) The Blue Zone before Ikigai, I found some of the concepts a bit repetitive. However, it was nevertheless a fun read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to attempt to live for more than a century. Also, since the main idea was around Ikigai, I found that they struggled to say more on the subject. Sometimes, it felt like Ikigai was not the main idea at all. Perhaps due to my experience with The Blue Zone, I found myself interested in the other blue zones, and was a bit disappointed that they only mentioned the other blue zones. However, this is understandable since the book’s main focus was on the Japanese.

To put it shortly, for those that have never read on the topic, this book is the best introductory book there is for you. It’s short and concise, and touches a bit on the other factors that may result in the group of centenarians. It is well written, and has real life applications for those that wish to walk the path.

Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.

Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.

Summary- The story is about Bharunda, a strange bird with two heads but only one body. One day, one head finds a delicious fruit and eats it without sharing it with the other head. The second head feels sad and insulted. Filled with anger and jealousy, it later eats a poisonous fruit to take revenge, even though it knows that both heads share the same body. As a result, the bird dies.

Moral of the story: The story teaches us how selfishness, jealousy, and anger can lead to harmful results. It teaches us that when people are connected, they should work together. The story also reminds us to think carefully before acting, as our decisions can affect not only us but also those around us.

My review: The story is short but it gives a valuable message. I enjoyed reading it because it is entertaining and the language is simple and easy to understand. It encourages us to share, forgive others, and make wise decisions instead of acting in anger.

I liked reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom is a funny and naughty boy who always gets into trouble. Sometimes he does silly things, but he is also brave and clever. My favorite part was when Tom and his friends went on an adventure and found treasure. I also liked the part where Tom tricked other boys into painting the fence for him because it was very funny.

Some parts of the book were a little hard to understand because it has old words. I had to read some pages slowly. But the story became more exciting as I kept reading. I liked Becky Thatcher and Huck Finn too. They made the story more fun.

This book taught me that being honest and helping others is important. It also showed that adventures can be exciting, but they can also be dangerous. Tom made mistakes, but he learned from them.

I think this is a good book for children who like adventure stories. It made me laugh and also made me curious about what would happen next. I would recommend this book to my friends because it is fun, exciting, and has many interesting characters.

My favourite character is Harry because he is brave, kind, and always helps his friends. I also liked Ron and Hermione because they work together to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets.

The best part of the book was when Harry found the Chamber and fought the giant snake to save Ginny. It was exciting and kept me turning the pages.

I would recommend this book to my friends because it is fun, adventurous, and teaches us that courage, friendship, and honesty are very important.

By Rudranshi Singh

The book comprises of  small stories which gives us valuable life lessons.  I will share a bit about a few stories from the book. The story of ‘Kavery and the Thief’ was based on the value of not stealing, similarly the ‘The Enchanted Scorpions’ also had a similar theme of not getting a hold of things that doesn’t belong to us. Another story which is one of my favourites is ‘ The Princess’s New Clothes’. It taught me the importance of abiding by the rules by siting relevant examples and situations. One of the most intriguing story was ‘When Yama Called’ based on the idea of letting go. Yama was a new interesting figure to me  who is deeply attached to the Indian mythology and spiritual understanding of life and death which is inevitable for all of us.

I love reading different genres of books but what I like most about Sudha Murty’s books is the way it is written with funny anecdotes and real life examples. The characters in the book are very relatable and feel like one of us. Though the language is simple but has a rich vocabulary which adds to my skills. I enjoy this author’s writing as it keeps me curious throughout and I wait for the next value that it reveals at the end.

Tom and Matt Oldfield

Zinedine Zidane-book review

What is this book about?

Who is Zinedine Yazid Zidane?

Zinedine Zidane, the book written by Matt and Tom Oldfield, is just one of the books in their football heroes series.

This book tells us about the historically known football player from France (now manager), who has also played from Real Madrid.

This book makes us believe that if you can believe, then you can achieve. That is what happened with Zidane.

From being five years old and playing for the first time with his friends in The Place La Tartane, to being the greatest player in the world and making France win the World Cup!

This is the story of Zinedine Yazid Zidane, who once dreamt of helping France win the World Cup, and then actually showed it to everyone how it's done!

Zinedine was born with three brothers;

Nourredine, Madjid, and Farid Zidane.

They all loved playing football, but Zinedine was the one who saw Michel Platini play for France and promised to make France win all the titles (like World Cup) someday.

He was only 11 or 12 when he got shifted away for his coaching so that he could play for local clubs as coaches saw the potential in him.

He then played the UEFA cup and The Champions League from Juventus, and made friends like Christophe Duggary,

Didier Deschamps, and Bixente Lizarazu.

He and his friends together, lost in the finals that they almost had their hopes up, but it was Zinedine's impressive football skills that lead them to win the 1998 World Cup!

By akshaj mishra grade 6A