Rating: 
Summary: Great to get you thinking
Review: Ishmael was intriguing and thought provoking. I read this book for an hour each day while monitoring naptime at the day care I volunteer at. Often times as the kids awoke, I found my brain was muddled with thoughts about life and how we train ourselves to follow society. This was the overwhelming idea I found being pushed off the page. Why do we think as we do? Merely because we're trained by society, or because we're brought comfort by the ideas that society displays? I really found myself becoming more attune to why I thought as I did, or why I reacted to certain ideas. This book was worth the time to read. It's split nicely so that you can absorb each section by only reading a small chunk each day; or if you're really intrepid you can sit down and take it all in one gulp. Those looking for an easy, light hearted read should look elsewhere though. This book will definitely cramp the brain, and I might even consider re-reading it (which I NEVER do) just to absorb even more of the picture. If you often ponder why you act as you do in relation to peers and the world; or if you find yourself plagued with thoughts of "why does this happen in the world" or "why are we here and WHAT am I doing?!" then I recommend Ishmael. If anything else, it helps to show you a lot of subtleties in society and will start your mind thinking on a more philosophical level.
Rating: 
Summary: You HAVE to read it.
Review: I didn't want to. Read it. It's cover was soo stupid. It sat in my room declaring itself "and adventure of the mind and spirit" and I was sick that it had been given to me. Sick, like I would be forced into some Celestine Prophecy gobbeldy-... But I did end up picking it up. MY LIFE HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME. Before this book, I had dreams that I would, through a mix of poetry and anthropology somehow put the nagging voices in my mind into a cohesive theory of what was going on with us and how to fix it. Quinn blew me away. He did it first! This book cannot be ignored. Thousands of us have read it now and are passing it on, passing it on, passing it on. Unable to sleep at night, we dream that we have enough money to buy one copy for the whole world.
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Summary: Ishmael is a gift to the world
Review: For all the people out there who have, what you might call, an "earnest desire to save the world", this is THE book you need to read. But it's not just for those who want to save the world. It is a book for anyone with questions of their own about creation, evolution, or their place in the world. I can not count the number of times while reading this book that I paused, set the book down, and said "Wow." I devoured this book. It is fast reading and moving. Daniel Quinn's style will help you figure out your own answers to some of your questions. And if you don't know what your question is, this book will help you figure that out too. I can't adequately describe Ishmael. Please read it for yourself.
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Summary: Ishmael - a Revolution.
Review: Ishmael is a revolution in writing. It crticizes life in it's very essence. It is written in droning socratic diologe but it's meaning is unversal and essential to making reforms in our everyday lifestyle(s). The bible must be rewriten, and history too. I wish there is something more I could do after reading this book. It's not about sappy environmentalism as the back cover dictates. I'll be pithy with you, reader/costomer, this is a book that your may not appreciate until the end. ONLY read this novel is you are willing to feel guilty and understand guilt. ONLY read this novel if you are willing to speak out. ONLY read this novel if you can contemplate the very meaning of life intellectually. READ this novel if you are prepared to disrupt the universe and turn your life around. (P.S. When you read this novel, you'll probably think me mad for rating 5 stars, (considering the writing style & course of "events") but read it and think about it, and soon you too will love it.)
Rating:
Summary: Ever got in touch with yourself?
Review: For starters I just want to thank Mr. Quinn for writing a simple book about life. I picked up Ismael on a hunch and the help of the reviews such as this one. This novel is just a great pick me up. It fills the whole that you've been missing in your head. It's a very quick read, about three days for me. Keep in mind this is the first book I have read in about 3 yrs. And now I am a certified book worm. This book helped me realize that reading is the best for one's soul. It may sound a little cliche, however I finally see the truth.
Rating:
Summary: life-inspiring
Review: I was told by a friend of good taste to read Ishmael. Seemed like a self-help book (ludicrous, really!). Then another friend recommended it, and I finally managed the time to give it my full attention. Though I was not taken aback at first - as I expected from my friends' enthusiasm - I grew fond of it to the extent that I had to read the sequel - My Ishmael - right after. This may not seem relevant, but I have a degree in Foreign Languages and Litteratures - I'm a Portuguese 30 year old woman - I enjoy reading almost more than anything else in life and there's been quite sometime since I happen to encounter such a life-inspiring book.
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Summary: Read it, if you want to survive...
Review: This is the first book in the trilogy of Daniel Quinn concerning our future on this planet... The things he's telling us through his characters are so new and yet so ancient and wise. If you ever wondered "how things became like this?" or "what is wrong with people?" or "do I have to get up every morning and work 8-12 hours?" this book will provide you with answers and you won't have to join some religion or cult or anything like that... This book (as well as two others in the trilogy) will make you see through all the lies of our civilization, including east and west religions as well as our political and economic leaders... The best yet, it doesn't teach you "how to be satisfied with less of what you have" or "how to achieve spiritual peace"! It's the best blueprint for saving the world WITH people in it so far... All three books are novels, so you will not feel like being preached all the time. You may say some twists or ending are predictable, but that doesn't matter. If you're falling out of a plane to your doom and someone gives you a parachute, you won't be asking what colour is it... Read it, if you want to survive! Also, you should go to ... for more information.
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Summary: You'll feel like you've known these things all along...
Review: Have you ever had a nagging feeling that things are not the way they should be? Justified the plight of humanity by telling yourself (or being told) that this is just the way things are, and always have been? Bought into the theory that the earth was a paradise, but humanity, being somehow fundamentally flawed, has managed to screw it up? NOT SO. Read Ishmael and Quinn's other books and you'll start to understand what needs to happen to preserve the world as a habitat for homo sapiens. Hint: it's not passing more laws, it's not initiating new programs, it's not giving up our technology and living like our ancestors, and it's not finding ways to increase the world's food supply. Do not judge this book as a literary artifact, but as a re-discovery of some of the most basic truths about where we have come from, and where we are going as a species.
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Summary: To change the world, we must first change minds.
Review: If you're anything like myself, especially if you're young (I'm a college student), the idea of what you're going to have to put up with for the next 50 years or so disturbs you. Humans are, far and away, the hardest working creatures on the planet, and it doesn't GET us anything. We are also the most disturbed, depressed, psychotic species on the planet. Clearly there is something unnatural about the way we are living. Quinn isn't able to provide any definite answers, although if you read all of his books (I have read Ishmael, My Ishmael, The Story of B, and Beyond Civilization) he CERTAINLY makes suggestions. And, more importantly, he lays out the questions, which is something that most of society seems to avoid doing. Humans are not flawed, but CIVILIZATION is. Does he expect us to return to the life of the "noble savage?" If you've read the rest of his work, you'll know he doesn't. However, he, like many of us, feels that we can do better. And NOT by funnelling more money into things. If it doesn't work, CHANGE it. If you are reading this book as a skeptic, I am sure you will find many flaws within it. After all, it is a teaching, not a paper, and it is published as fiction for a reason (although his non-fiction books may serve you better). However, his books have entirely changed my mind, and, hopefully, will change my life as well. But, as Quinn says in The Story of B, "The world will not be changed by old minds with new programs. The world will be changed by new minds...with no programs." Unless you are entirely satisfied with where the world seems to be headed, read this. And be prepared to think. Quinn is not some prophet who has all the answers we need. He is simply a man who has managed to see the world in a different way than many of us, and is able to illuminate those around him. Read it, learn it, think about it. And, as Quinn says, "You are an inventive species. Invent." Quinn cannot change the world, he can only provide us with an unbelievably useful tool for doing so, through changing your mind. If you are so shallow that you cannot get by the idea of a telepathic gorilla, or so skeptical that you require absolute backup to what is said, don't bother. Your mind is unchangeable, and I pity you. However, if you are uncomfortable with where you see your life going, if you want something MORE, if there is an indetectable THING that bothers you as you go through your everyday life, read this. Warning, though, you may not be the same when you finish.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you all crazy?
Review: i can't believe all you people buy into all that babble. Ishmael was waste of a perfectly good few hours. it babbled on and on about how humans mess everything up, and how nice everything used to be. and a talkin gorilla was just too far out for me thank you very much. it was basically a VERY long essay. it's not worth the price of the glue that holds it together. save yourself time and brain cells and dont read it.
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