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Summary: Great Book for self-loathing Caucasians
Review: Do you believe Western Civilization is the root of all evil? Do you believe Human beings are nothing but a virus on the face of Mother Earth? Do you hate Caucasians or wish you weren't one?
Do you believe that the world would be a better place without people?
Then this book is for you!
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Summary: the world needs you to read this...
Review: I read this book about six years ago and immediately after reading it, I bought and read his other works, My Ishmael, and Story of B, both of which are excellent reads. So after reading the on line reviews, I can see that Quinn either moves people to the point of cult followers or pisses people off. Great, that is what he wanted...One thing must be made clear: This book IS writen to be a message to the masses at both the lowest common denomenator level of the complete idiot, and also to the intelligent thinkers, like myself and many of my friends who I consider to be intelligent people, many of which are Ivy-league college grads. The idea is to use plain language to describe things that all of us know already but to string these concepts together in such a way that it leaves the reader awe-struck and angry at our culture. It gives the compassionate liberal thinker a fire under their ass to do things better. It changed my outlook on everything that I know to be 'modern' and 'civilized'. It is important to have a clear picture of how the world REALLY IS, and how everything you put value on regarding civilization CAME TO BE. Do NOT buy this book for plot, or value as literature. It's not written to be a great work of literature, rather, it is a message that must be delivered to the world to remind us what we are doing and where we're headed as a culture (the world culture). I strongly disagree with the arogant snobs in this review page who have criticized this book's value based upon plot and quality of 'literature'. Your missing the point... And those who criticize Quinn based upon the belief that 'everyone with a brain already knows these ideas' are just plain wrong... YES most of these ideas are ones that every intelligent person knows about deep down, BUT... They've never been presented in such a way, and the simplicity of the language makes his point clear as day. That is why quinn has done a most successful job. Buy it! Read it! Pass it along to someone else! Tell them to do the same!!!
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Summary: read it to your children
Review: Ishmael put the overlooked, obvious objective view, into the forefront. Ishmael is a book everyone should read, especially children. A perfect gift for the disillusioned.
Rating:
Summary: read it cover to cover nonstop
Review: i started reading this at my sister's house one night because it was on the coffee table and i was bored. i didn't sleep until i finished it the next day. i just couldn't put it down. if you're buying it for the plot, then don't. the plot is simple and there isn't much in the way of the story. it's the ideas that daniel quinn is conveying that are the core of this book. i didn't find the plot annoying, but it's definately not what this book is all about. like several of the reviewers have pointed out, the ideas are nothing new to someone who thinks about the state of the world for half a second, but the way he puts them together really made me think. and it left my jaw on the floor a couple times, for not realizing some of the things he points out before. he even covers this in the beginning of the book, by referring to these ideas as a mosaic that he's going to pull apart and re-arrange so it looks like a totally different picture by the end. anyway, i personally enjoyed this perspective quite a bit and have recommended this book to practically everyone i know. i din't care for the sequals "my ishmael" and "the story of b" as much, because it is basically the same material with different plots, and new parallels to explain the ideas. this, however, was an amazing read for me.
Rating:
Summary: Ishmael
Review: In this book, the mindless chatter of modernity's empty consumerism and the trashing of air, earth, water, fire and our neighbors, are eloquently exposed to the angst-ridden Student through a Gorilla, Ishmael. Uncharacteristically, the Master human listens, and the creature prevails but only through using the Master's Tools of logic and persuasive human speech. But it takes what it takes. I have my doubts that the mind ever persuades the heart as much as one heart persuades another, but this book is one more route to follow in getting "It": to understand that humankind cannot continue its domination of an earth that was not created by or for it. Also recommended: The Price of Immortality by C.M. Whitlock
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Summary: Groundbreaking
Review: People who argue against this book seem to fit into two categories: a) They simply did not find any entertainment value, and thus were unable to listen to the ideas. However, this is probably as entertaining as philosophy or anthropology ever comes.
b) They already had some of these thoughts and maintain their philosophic self-esteem by putting down a groundbreaking book. The ideas are amazing, well put, and if you are brave, will change your life. I am a tracker. I have learned to live as primitive peoples have, and I will tell you that Mother culture's whispers are absolutely lies. Primitive life is easy, leisurely, and meaningful.
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Summary: An insult to your intelligence
Review: If you're thinking of reading this book, it's probably because you're an intelligent and thoughtful individual who enjoys quality literature that challenges you intellectually while engaging you emotionally. Which means this book would be a waste of your time. "Ishmael" is not, despite its categorization as fiction, a novel. It is a work of philosophy, and a poor one. Its central tenet - that human beings, through their total disregard for the world around them, are destroying the Earth and its non-human inhabitants as well as each other - is true enough, but it's also obvious to any halfway thoughtful or literate person. Its secondary tenet, that the media portrays the subjugation and destruction of the Earth's wildlife and environment as an inevitable product of civilization, is almost as trivial. If the book has a tertiary tenet, it's that people in general are so stupid that they need to be told this stuff, and that they need to be told it repeatedly, in language appropriate for casual conversation with a fifth-grader. What else is wrong with this book? Well, it's based on the ridiculous premise of a telepathic ape who lives in an office building and bestows his wisdom on the protagonist, which makes the whole story seem like something Kurt Vonnegut might have written as a joke, if he were capable of writing this badly. The protagonist (if a novel with no story could be said to have a protagonist) is one of the least intelligent characters I've come across in a novel. Presumably this is an excuse for the ape to repeat his teachings, again and again, as if they're in some way revolutionary. So what's *right* about "Ishmael"? Why did it win a prestigious award, and why have so many reviewers - professional as well as Amazon-based - given it high marks? Well, as philosophy books go this one is unusually easy to read and understand. As novels go, it has more of a social conscience than most (although, as I've said, this social conscience is poorly expressed and destroys the book's value as literature). The things "Ishmael" says are true and valuable and might be interesting if they were expressed more thoroughly and in a less patronizing manner. It's not a *bad* book, really. I wouldn't call it a waste of paper. It's just wildly inappropriate for anyone who might read it. A book like this is going to attract an audience of intelligent, educated people: people who have already learned - through other books, or other people, or their own thoughts - everything "Ishmael" has to teach. The people who should consider reading this book, who might really learn something from it - children under the age of, at most, twelve and anyone who has never had an original thought in his life - are not likely to pick it up. Which, I can't restrain myself from saying, isn't a huge loss.
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Summary: I was a skeptic, but now.....
Review: My girlfriend recommended this book to me under the pretense that a friend of hers had said "This book will change your life." That was enough to keep me from reading it for a couple of months. Then one day, I picked it up and read it at work because.....quite frankly I had nothing else to read. Did it change my life? I don't know about that, but it certainly made me stop in a couple of spots and say "Whoa!" You can get the gist of this book from the reviews and amazon.com synopsis already here. For me, I would have to say the main two things this book did for me were the following: One, it reinforced the way I felt about religion, creationism, evolution, etc. Secondly, it made me look at a few things I honestly never thought of before, then gave those a new spin. Perhaps I am being confusing. One of the parts of this book that really knocked me over was the telling of a VERY well known biblical tale. The story was told in more or less the traditional way, with the traditional literal understanding. Then, the author flips it over, says "What about this?", and left my mind swimming with amazement. I did not feel dumb, just shocked that something so obvious and interesting had never occured to me before. I am sure this has been a confusing read, but do yourself a favor and pick up the book. Whether you believe in it or not, it's entertaining and it may just get you to look at a few things from a different perspective.
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Summary: Saving the World
Review: I used to turn to religion but now whenever I have a question on why things are the way they are I turn to Ishmael. This book not only made me relize that saving the world was possible but that you didn't have to depend on people being better than they really are to save it. What a concept!
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR ALL HUMANS
Review: WHY oh why was this not required reading in school. We need to learn to think outside the box, away form what society has programed into us. We should all read this book and question our truth.
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