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A review by drx
The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang
3.0
This book is like sitting around with your grandfather while he shares his thoughts about everything under the sun, so long as your father is a witty, erudite, philosophically inclined Chinese man. I received this book as a gift. It has an irresistible table of contents, with chapter headings like On Having a Stomach, On Being Wayward and Incalculable, The Problem of Happiness, The Cult of the Idle Life, Celibacy a Freak of Civilization, On Lying in Bed, On Sitting in Chairs, On Rocks and Trees, On Going About and Seeing Things, The Art of Reading, Why I am a Pagan, and Be Reasonable. How could you resist that?
Parts of the book are highly engaging, funny, and thought-provoking. Much of the book focuses on differences between Chinese and Western thought and customs, and many of the themes will be very familiar to people who have read other books on similar topics. The rest of the book is highly personal, and Yutang provides prescriptions for a life well-lived, prescriptions that cover virtually everything you could imagine, as the small subset of chapter headings above suggests.
So, why only 3 stars? I didn't love this book as much as I anticipated from the chapters, and even when I did enjoy it, it often seemed long-winded. My book isn't the paperback copy suggested by this entry, but an old hardback that clocks in at 459 pages. This from the guy who, at the end of the book, chides Westerners from relying too much on words and who quotes Chinese scholars who say that sages never speak.
I read this book in little bits over a long period of time (and the book is perfectly suitable for that). Parts I loved, and parts were just ok. Obviously, each person will find some aspects of the book that really resonate (Yes, you should lie about in bed!), and other parts that seem less agreeable (Do you really mean to say that about women? About having children?) If you come across the book, why not pick it up? It will look great on your shelf, and you can pick it up occasionally and read the chapters that sound appealing.
Parts of the book are highly engaging, funny, and thought-provoking. Much of the book focuses on differences between Chinese and Western thought and customs, and many of the themes will be very familiar to people who have read other books on similar topics. The rest of the book is highly personal, and Yutang provides prescriptions for a life well-lived, prescriptions that cover virtually everything you could imagine, as the small subset of chapter headings above suggests.
So, why only 3 stars? I didn't love this book as much as I anticipated from the chapters, and even when I did enjoy it, it often seemed long-winded. My book isn't the paperback copy suggested by this entry, but an old hardback that clocks in at 459 pages. This from the guy who, at the end of the book, chides Westerners from relying too much on words and who quotes Chinese scholars who say that sages never speak.
I read this book in little bits over a long period of time (and the book is perfectly suitable for that). Parts I loved, and parts were just ok. Obviously, each person will find some aspects of the book that really resonate (Yes, you should lie about in bed!), and other parts that seem less agreeable (Do you really mean to say that about women? About having children?) If you come across the book, why not pick it up? It will look great on your shelf, and you can pick it up occasionally and read the chapters that sound appealing.