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kilkilshah 's review for:
The Road to Character
by David Brooks
The premise of the book gets five stars. David Brooks talks about how there are two types of people. One externally driven by ambition, career, etc (called the "resume virtues"). The other is more internally driven (called "eulogy virtues"). He talks about how the externally-driven self usually overshadows the internally-driven but ultimately will not provide the deep satisfaction people usually look for. Brooks then picks eight characteristics that he thinks will help develop the "eulogy virtues". In each chapter he picks someone in history to personify that trait.
I completely agree with the premise. However overall I found the book to be poorly organized and too long. First, there is no explanation as to why those eight characteristics were chosen. I am not convinced that it is an exhaustive list or even the most important eight. Second, each chapter seemed to drag on with the biography of the person before really getting to the point. It was a real slog for me to get through this book.
I almost wished I did what he said in the intro and just skipped to the last chapter because it provided a summary that was good enough to get a basic understanding of the whole book.
I completely agree with the premise. However overall I found the book to be poorly organized and too long. First, there is no explanation as to why those eight characteristics were chosen. I am not convinced that it is an exhaustive list or even the most important eight. Second, each chapter seemed to drag on with the biography of the person before really getting to the point. It was a real slog for me to get through this book.
I almost wished I did what he said in the intro and just skipped to the last chapter because it provided a summary that was good enough to get a basic understanding of the whole book.