Chai's Blog

I read Scott Berkun’s lat­est book The Ghost of My Father. It is a mem­oir about Berkun’s failed rela­tion­ship with his father. Giv­en I am a father, the theme sound­ed inter­est­ing. So I hoped to buy and enqueue this book to my cur­rent read­ing list. How­ev­er Berkun tweet­ed:

I sub­scribed with a feel­ing that he might give­away this book. And he did, indeed. So to return his favour, I start­ed read­ing as soon as I received the book.

This mem­oir gave me an inter­est­ing per­spec­tive on peo­ple. As this is an inti­mate per­son­al sto­ry of the author I love to read, I am keep­ing my opin­ions of the char­ac­ters in the book, to myself. I felt awful to learn what Berkun had to go through in his child­hood. I am glad that he became what he is today despite the hard­ships in his child­hood. My respect from him grew man­i­fold.

I strong­ly rec­om­mend this book to dads and mums out there. This books is by no means a par­ent­ing hand­book but it gen­tly teach­es how not to treat our chil­dren. Wit­ty yet thought­ful Berkun’s writ­ing style will inform and enter­tain at the same time. I thank Berkun for his will­ing­ness to share his inti­mate per­son­al sto­ry with the world and there­by pro­vid­ing us use­ful insights on fam­i­ly and rela­tion­ships.