The Café on the Edge of the World

"Actually a good read for a “parable!” Three main questions of the book: Why am I here? Do you fear death? Are you fulfilled?"

"This is going to be a relatively short review because I feel like that’s what it needs. This book came as a recommendation from my grandmother who got the book recommended to her from my aunt. I’m going to do my best to explain my feelings on this book in most simplistic terms. The man gets stuck in traffic on his way to his “vacation,” and winds up getting lost. Along the way, he finds a cafe in the middle of nowhere. Figuring that it’s the middle of the night and his tank of gas is almost on empty, he pulls off and enters the cafe. A waitress appears and offers him a menu. There’s three questions on the menu. “Why are you here?” “Do you fear death?” “Are you fulfilled?” The man goes on a long journey about self-discovery and realizes that he’s in a vicious cycle of work, eat, sleep, repeat. Nothing he does brings him joy. He works to pay bills and to buy things of monetary value to go back to work and do the same things. The whole reason he came across the cafe was because he was going on a vacation because of stress. This book is a good subtle wake-up call to self-realization. It puts things into perspective. A lot of people spend thousands of dollars on school for a degree in a career that 9 times out of 10, 90% just settle. Working to provide for family, for a standard of living that’s not even realistic anymore, and don’t even get a solid eight hours of sleep at night. Then work to retirement and a good majority of people don’t retire. They work past retirement because they’re worried about money. This is simply no way to live. Think about it. You spend roughly 8-10 hours a day at work five days a week from the time you’re 18 to the time you’re 65. Why not spend that time doing something that you enjoy? This book is definitely a favorite of mine, a quick read, a good book to read when you’re burnt out from reading, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. I wish my dad read it. "