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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This book is nice, made me think about what is really important in life! The author knows a lot of interesting people and has many stories to tell, but sometimes I felt like he was just talking. Maybe I am still too young and don't completely understand life yet. Might read this again when I am a little older.
Also took me a few months to finish it...
Also took me a few months to finish it...
Easy to read and digest, but harder to apply completely.
A collection of ideas on living the best life. The concept of Th Two Mountains is valuable metaphor: The first mountain is building the self, while the second is expanding our lives to interconnected relationships. We have to go through a valley of searching and rediscovery to move from one to another.
Brooks is a collector of ideas and concepts; list after list of ways to improve yourself, including different levels of joy, the concepts of moral ecologists, the crises of individualism, etc. These lists are an impressive collection of concepts from many different books and thinkers from different eras. And yet, at other times, the lists get tiresome.
Overall, the book is valuable guide for thinking and moving beyond a life of hyper-individualism to interdependence
Brooks is a collector of ideas and concepts; list after list of ways to improve yourself, including different levels of joy, the concepts of moral ecologists, the crises of individualism, etc. These lists are an impressive collection of concepts from many different books and thinkers from different eras. And yet, at other times, the lists get tiresome.
Overall, the book is valuable guide for thinking and moving beyond a life of hyper-individualism to interdependence
The book is uneven, but surprisingly vulnerable and touchingly profound. I can see how it garners mixed reviews, but to me the profundity of this book is not so much the ideas, but the way Brooks has of processing his own grief, growth, and growing faith through the act of writing, and it is this very sense of the personal that moves this book beyond words to something profoundly human. I need to read it again, once I have achieved a little distance.
individualism is terrible and has caused a lot of divides in society, the second mountain involves devoting oneself to a greater cause by committing to a vocation, marriage, religion, and / or community
this dude seems very self-righteous and unforgiving of why people have individualistic compasses and sounds judgemental of those who are on the first mountain instead of empathizing with circumstances and personalities
this dude seems very self-righteous and unforgiving of why people have individualistic compasses and sounds judgemental of those who are on the first mountain instead of empathizing with circumstances and personalities
Essentially a conservative argument against individualistic society towards a community-based one. Well articulated, researched, and very passionate. It’s refreshing, I guess, to hear a politically Conservative actually offer a vision forward for our society, and condemning the current tribalism present in our US political landscape.
One of the first nonfiction books I’ve read where my first thought upon completion was, “I will need to reread this one.”
One of the first nonfiction books I’ve read where my first thought upon completion was, “I will need to reread this one.”
A book filled with ideas on living a good life, nearly all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I was very surprised at how closely I related to portions of the text and the belief/values system laid out in this book.
My problem with this book, and so many like this, is that it depends entirely on the work of others. He quotes again and again from some of my favorite authors in attempt to boil down their works to support his own points.
It begins to feel like a greatest hits album or playlist of which he’s organized but adds little to.
Skip this and read the original works ofCS Lewis, Wendell Berry, Burke, Kierkegaard, Niebuhr, Frankl and the so many others.
Brooks does do an excellent job of finding choosing great works on the various subjects from others to include. The book functions more of a general research paper than anything too focused.
That said, I did enjoy the book. I think he logically reasons well and moves it a way that this book is an easy read.
My problem with this book, and so many like this, is that it depends entirely on the work of others. He quotes again and again from some of my favorite authors in attempt to boil down their works to support his own points.
It begins to feel like a greatest hits album or playlist of which he’s organized but adds little to.
Skip this and read the original works ofCS Lewis, Wendell Berry, Burke, Kierkegaard, Niebuhr, Frankl and the so many others.
Brooks does do an excellent job of finding choosing great works on the various subjects from others to include. The book functions more of a general research paper than anything too focused.
That said, I did enjoy the book. I think he logically reasons well and moves it a way that this book is an easy read.