FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling.

 

BOOK REVIEW: 4.5 stars out of Five. 

Factfulness by Hans Rosling is a book that deals with various misconceptions about the world and tries to present the facts with bubble charts and averages. He points out that a piece of negative news is more attention-grabbing than a piece of boring good news and that's why our media bombards us with negativity. Development is a slow-moving tortoise but at least it moves. But we hardly hear any positive news about development. He enlightens us that the present world is in a much better shape when compared to the past. But most of us live in the perception that the world is becoming dangerous day by day. He talks about various human instincts that shape our worldview and teaches us how to avoid these instincts so that we can perceive the world in a much better way than what our negative instincts led us to believe. Reading this book will change your mind and will force you to pause and think before you make sudden judgments about any situation.

The writing style is simple and easy to understand. His method of posing questions to the readers at the beginning of the book is a clever way of making people understand the flaws in their perception. His way of dividing the countries into four levels instead of the traditional way of developing and developed countries is quite enlightening. He also gave us some insight into how doctors work in villages of poor countries. I am glad that I read this book. I am moved by the fact that he worked so hard during the last days of his life in finishing this wonderful book.