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A review by jay_the_hippie
The Wisdom of the Shire: A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life by Noble Smith
3.0
I liked the idea behind this book better than the execution.
Actually, many of the points the author made were good. I mean, the hobbits do live a simple life that does lead to it also being a happy life, but the ideas are presented more as imperatives at times. Also, I would have liked more "how do you get from here to there," because a busy life centered around multiple busy children does not evaporate based on wanting it. He does mention prioritization, which is good, but his assumption that the Internet and television is the drain for my time is dead wrong: I don't see how cutting the 30 minutes of TV I watch each year or the handful of minutes I spend surfing the Internet each week is really cutting into my productive hours. There are many such assumptions he makes (Monsanto has done so much good in its history. It offends me that the author uses it as an example of wrongness in the world.)
While I'd say that the footnotes are one of my favorite parts of the book -- I love how they tie in reminders of what happened in the books and the movies -- a fair number of them have little or no apparent relation to the sentence they are supposed to illuminate.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but that was due in large part for the reminders and synopses of the actual books from Tolkien.
Actually, many of the points the author made were good. I mean, the hobbits do live a simple life that does lead to it also being a happy life, but the ideas are presented more as imperatives at times. Also, I would have liked more "how do you get from here to there," because a busy life centered around multiple busy children does not evaporate based on wanting it. He does mention prioritization, which is good, but his assumption that the Internet and television is the drain for my time is dead wrong: I don't see how cutting the 30 minutes of TV I watch each year or the handful of minutes I spend surfing the Internet each week is really cutting into my productive hours. There are many such assumptions he makes (Monsanto has done so much good in its history. It offends me that the author uses it as an example of wrongness in the world.)
While I'd say that the footnotes are one of my favorite parts of the book -- I love how they tie in reminders of what happened in the books and the movies -- a fair number of them have little or no apparent relation to the sentence they are supposed to illuminate.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but that was due in large part for the reminders and synopses of the actual books from Tolkien.