Book review: The yellow world

Author Blurb

In these 23 Discoveries Albert shows us how to connect daily reality with our most distant dreams. He tells us that 'losses are positive', 'the word "pain" doesn't exist', and 'what you hide the most reveals the most about you'.

Albert Espinosa never wanted to write a book about surviving cancer, so he didn't. He wrote a book instead about the Yellow World. What is the yellow world? The yellow world is a world that's within everyone's reach, a world the colour of the sun. It is the name of a way of living, of seeing life, of nourishing yourself with the lessons that you learn from good moments as well as bad ones. It is the world that makes you happy, the world you like living in. The yellow world has no rules; it is made of discoveries.

From the personal experiences of Albert Espinosa, The yellow world is a helpful, life affirming story. It is not a self help book despite its its position on the Waterstones book shelves, it is so much more than that, its a record of self discovery, recovery, happiness and finding ways of coping and being able to smile and be happy during what some would describe as one of the toughest times of their lives - battling cancer.

***

This book, although short and therefore a quick read is not an easy one. It promotes self exploration and evaluation and whilst  Espinosa tackles his experiences in a light hearted and humorous way - "Sometimes I don't know whether to charge my computer, my mobile or my leg. I think its a luxury to have problems like these" - it is not a book that is light, fluffy and easy to forget.

This is a book that, although you might not reach for it often, will stay with you for a very long time, maybe even influencing the way you live and see your life and the lives of those around you, at least when you sit back and really think about the wonderful message of this intriguing book.

Although the message, when allowed to sink in and be thought about, is pretty amazing the layout did confuse and frustrate me. I knew that the book was a mixture of tale and 'self help' but I was hoping that it would be more story with better integrated 'self help' rather than just bullet points after a single paragraph, even if those paragraphs are pretty good.

I am glad I read this book and even though I will not be applying his ideas and suggestions to my own life this tale did make me think and vow to change my life (at least temporarily). This book, the author and his extraordinary tale, fight and outlook were incredibly inspirational.

Everyone should give this book a chance and read it at least once, this is the kind of book that is most definitely open to individual interpretation and if nothing else will cause you to look at your own life and wonder if it could be changed by embracing his ideas and teachings.

Rating: 3/5 - The layout let it down.