For my second book, I chose Design the Life You Love by Ayse Birsel.

This was something that caught my attention right away, and the title had this positive message without the cover giving away too much of what was in store once cracking the spine. I’m a huge fan of positive books with doodles in them. However, I’m not sure this particular book is for me. I would probably prefer if this book were only self-help rather than a hands-on type of self-help. I know it acts as a reminder of the fact that you cannot just take another person’s experience and call it your own or have it work the same way for you. Life doesn’t work like that. This guide does it’s best to create a way to brainstorm, a way to relearn certain things like not feeling guilty for rambling or doodling on the corner of each page. There are prompts throughout the book that sort of make it feel like school.

They give you a “time limit,” but I feel like it’s the book giving the reader permission to allow time for things in general and not just for this tiny prompt. The purpose of this book is to provide you insight and perhaps look at things differently. Outside of the box/comfort zone insight.

Now don’t get me wrong, this book has a lovely idea behind it, and I plan on giving it more time before I write it off as “not for me.” But at the moment I’m still on the fence about it. Not due to lack of interesting topics, because the interactive part is fun, but perhaps my mood is just not in the right place for this particular book even though I require some positive energy and this book has plenty of that. I need to make the time for it and to remember to play sometimes.

 * I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.