Rating: 
Summary: Man in Free Fall
Review: This "novel" is a must-read for anyone interested in seeing the world survive the 21st century. More than a novel, this book is presented as a teacher-student dialogue that presents facts as fiction (myths) and fiction as fact (dialogue with a gorilla through telepathy). After a few pages, the reader is comfortable with the basic concept but increasingly uncomfortable with life as we know it and increasingly aware of floating in a free fall toward disaster.
I heartily recommend this to anyone with a mind ready to be opened.
Rating: 
Summary: The most misguiding book in history!
Review: Wonder why people keep calling this book "life-changing"? I'm still wondering.
This book is based on principles of evolution and disillusioned theology. It is pure FICTION, not fact. It asks many questions that normal right-thinking people would think too trivial and nonsense to ask.
This is like Darwin's theories of evolution or some kind of mind altering teaching. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK!
It makes the reader think about the beginning of mankind and the world, the present condition of mankind and the world, and the future of mankind and the world. It founds some small details on the beginning of civilization based on religious texts, such as the Bible, but reads as if the author is entirely familiar with them, which obviously he is not.
The book supports the reader forsaking and rejecting any previous thoughts and feelings about religion that the reader has, and just coming up with a plan to "save" the world from mankind's destruction.
Also, the book "teaches" that the way to end overpopulation is to let starvation and hunger kill off people. So we should just sit around and let innocent lives die for the sake of plants and animals? Give me a break!
The reason I think this book deserves 2 stars is because with all this fiction presented as facts, there are some good historic points about civilization, population control, and things people take for granted. It also makes a point that we don't have to destroy the natural world, such as habitats and animal communities.
Still, the book is misleading and just plain fake. The gorilla telepathically communicates, which isn't so bad but just makes for a better story, but the pupil is brainwashed into turning their whole life into playing a part in someone's absurd and riduculous plan. The book tries to brainwash the reader to do the same.
This book requires deep thinking. If you want to save your brain the trouble of a headache, DON'T BUY THE BOOOK!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Hmm
Review: If you have not read this book, you might be wondering why so many reviewers would characterize it as "life changing" and why the rest of them seem to be so ticked off. This book will ask you to reconsider everything you've ever been told. Even if you don't agree with everything Quinn says, it must cause you to think. There are very few books that I can say have changed me, and this is one of them. Do yourself and the rest of us a favor by reading it.
Rating:
Summary: PUPIL FOUND TEACHER; has an earnest desire to save the world
Review: i would just like to say that this is one of the most profound and important books i feel that i have ever had the privelege to read.
questions that have always loomed in my mind were suddenly answered, woven together, and handed back to me like a pile of folded laundry. several times i actually had to stop reading for the sole purpose of sitting with my mouth open for several moments. this book has guts, it has brains, and it has things to say that we've all been needing to hear for 10,000 years.
do us all a favor. read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I Didn't Know That Reading Could BeThis Painful
Review: Ishmael: Gorilla: Hypnotic: [junk]. As this book was required reading for my high school class, I had no choice but to sit and force myself to pay attention to its mindless babble. This book is not only the definition of "boredom", but is pointless and repetitive. While reading Ishmael, my brain was on the verge of exploding with frustration. Let me tell you, the worst agony that you would ever have to experience, is trying to pay attention to something that your mind just can't focus on... in other words: Ishmael. The entirety of the so-called lessons "taught" in this book, could have easily been summed up in about ten pages. Even three weeks after reading the book, my sanity has still not fully recovered, and for this reason, I beg you no to ever read this book, and experience the pointless senarios and made up vocabulary. This book forces one's self to endure tedious stories and senseless dialogue......Saving the world? Not likely! Yes, we all know what we're doing to destroy the world, but trust me; reading this book isn't even going to begin to stop it. If you're looking for a book to exercize your mind and make you think, well, this is definitely not the book for you. Please, save yourself the ten dollars and the trip to the book store, don't buy this AWFUL book!...
Rating: 
Summary: A Study of Captivity
Review: While some people found Ishmael boring, it is silly to approach this book with the sole aim of being entertained. If thats what you want, go to a circus. If you want a polemic, even frustrating read, then pick up Ishmael. Throughout the book, I found myself constantly at odds with the big gorilla, but to my surprise, the Socratic diologue got fresher and more in depth as it went on. My initial anger at some of Ishmael's more outrageous claims subsided, when I finally allowed myself to actually read the book, rather than argue it. That is one of the joys of reading, I think, to find a book thats good to read and also give you quite a bit to digest. My only complaint, is one I normally make against all diologues--that the exchange is always between a wise teacher and a yes man. Understanding is acheived despite communication and not because of it. Even still, this point is weak and should not be a deterrent to reading the book. Overall, Ishmael is challenging (in scope not language) and dares us to see a world beyond the order we have imposed upon it. If nothing else, Ishmael should at least make you want to turn off your computer and go outside.
Rating:
Summary: Painful
Review: Although this is arguably the worst book I have ever read, I must admit that the author deserves some credit for it. After all, he must have put a lot of effort into coming up with such unrealistic ideas, and it shows. I don't know how in the world the author managed to stay awake long enough to write this much redundant, pointless information, when the entire book could easily be summarized in one chapter. Unless for some reason you enjoy subjecting yourself to endless hours of unbelievable boredom, stay away from this book at all costs!
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for everyone
Review: 'Ishmael' tops the list of the most mind-changing books I've ever read. What's important about 'Ishmael' is not the story, but the ideas embedded within it. When you peel away the two characters in the cramped office, you have one of the most amazing tales ever told. And there's the beauty of it--the ideas are FACT, not fiction. This book must be approached with an open mind; of course we know that gorillas can't talk, telepathically or otherwise. Suspend your disbelief for a couple hours and digest what you learn in this novel. It will astound you. Another reviewer mentioned the book being repetitive (kind of like his review?), but frankly that claim is unfounded. Because they are so revolutionary, Quinn goes over his points with a fine-toothed comb to make certain his readers follow him. And if his readers are intelligent, open-minded, literate individuals, they'll have no problem doing so. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. Do yourself an enormous service and pick it up, but do so at your own risk. You'll not be the same after.
Rating: 
Summary: teachings of a preachy gorilla
Review: The ironic cleverness of casting a gorilla as a more evolved and educated being than man wears off after a few pages. "Ishmael" was recommended to me by a person who, at one time, intimidated me with her worldliness and intelligence. After reading it, though, I came to understand that most of the philosophy she was feeding me came directly out of this book, and that realization disillusions me somewhat. The title character is a worldly ape who seeks out a pupil "with an earnest desire to save the world." The unidentified narrator is the pupil, whose perceptions of living are changed drastically by the animal. The book is basically a drawn-out college lecture on the history of the "good" of mankind (Leavers) and the "bad" (Takers), as told by a sometimes annoyingly preachy primate. The unsubtle message is: if we, as humans, don't turn around our destructive behavior, we'll ultimately destroy the planet. "Ishmael" addresses issues of relevance and is actually a quick and easy read, but for anyone who's mulled over the facts of their own existence without help from the Idiot Box, none of it will come as a big surprise. The person I knew seemed to use the contents of this book to prop up her own 'intelligence,' but didn't necessarily take any of it to heart. Like Orwell, if it's not forced upon you in a school setting, "Ishmeal" can provide an intellectually stimulating and philosophical take on the condition of society; its premise is simple and it leaves you with some food for thought. But to get the hard facts about what's really going on outside your door and affecting your life (without the fictional guise), I'd suggest picking up something by Noam Chomsky instead.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I would like to start by saying this book doesn't even deserve one star. It doesn't deserve any. I found this talking gorllia to reapeat it self over and over and over. I thought this book was one of the worst books. You need to look up 90 words in the first 4 chaptes to understand what this anilmal is saying. It was filled with bad analigies. It helped me relize how horrible books can really be. I am not thinking about some books I have read in the past and thought they were bad but after this one all those book seem to be very interesting. I would like to know what the point of repeating your self over and over for a couple hundred pages does for an author. I would never recommend this book to anyone. This book should not be read in the schools. It talks too much about gods and informational stuff that no one really cares about. All this will do for students is help them to understand how boring reading can be. I don't think this book should be read in schools whatsoever. It forces kids to be "taught" about nothing and just waste your children's time in school and out. If someone wants to read it for fun, how ever that may be accompished, go right ahead. If you are into boring, not understadable, repetative books this is a book for you. Take this book out of the schools and lock it up. This book should not have won any awards. The only award I would give this book is for being the most boring book ever. I have read some boring books but this just tops it off. I will now separate my books into 2 catagories, the books that are boring but I can handel now after reading this book and just all around good books. Ishmael fits into neither the catagory of boring unreadable boring boring books. THe section of books where everything is repeated over and over agin until you can't handle it any more. You just want to scream and instead you fall asleep from being so bored you can't think anymore. I find sitting in a quiet room with Ishmael send you on an adventure that you want to get off of. This book is a sleeper. A recommendation-take it out of schools. This book does not deserve the credit and I don't know how people found it interesting. DONT'T READ THIS BOOK.
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