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Summary: Interesting story, compelling characters, great message
Review: Daniel Quinn's *Ishmael* begins the Ishmael Trilogy, and is followed by *The Story of B* and *My Ishmael.* It is a story about a man, Alan, who seeks to find a teacher so that he may make a difference, and improve the world. He finds just such a teacher: Ishmael. Ishmael is an unlikely candidate for the position, because he is a gorilla who is able to communicate telepathically with humans. In this way, he teaches Alan some fascinating and profound lessons. *Ishmael* has a message. It tries to tell the reader that mankind is not alone in the world of nature. It seeks to let the reader know that man is not intrinsically flawed, and that man and the world are not doomed. Instead, man has his place in the pantheon of life, a role to play among earth's creatures. Ishmael's message is that the solution to our ills is to change our ways, and to not deny our origins nor try to be something we are not. It may not be easy to get back on the right path, but we can do it. On a personal level, *Ishmael* is one of the finest and most moving books I've ever read. Indeed, it and the other books in Quinn's series have changed my life, and by far for the better. I recommend *Ishmael* *The Story of B,* and *My Ishmael* to anyone and everyone.
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Summary: The Socratic Method Given New Life
Review: Daniel Quinn takes the age-old method of teaching through question and answer to new levels in this riveting book. It should be mandatory for everyone who counts themselves as a member of the living. If this book doesn't move you to take action, then nothing will, and our fate on this planet will surely be sealed.
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Summary: A life-changing book. Read it & share it.
Review: This is a book that I will send to as many people as I can think of! Quinn articulated many of the feelings that I have had swirling around in the back of my head for years but could never quite describe. Thank you, Daniel Quinn for being brave enough to say so clearly what we all need to hear! If reading this book doesn't get you to seriously reconsider how you live your life, then read it again and again until it does!
Rating: 
Summary: 4 stars for the ideas, but 0 stars for the narrative
Review: this book sucks. it has absolutely no literary merit whatsoever and is a major pain in the ass to read through. however, read through it I did and i'm actually glad I did because the ideas don't really get going until the last quarter of the book. Essentially, the first 3/4s are drivel, no-brainer stuff than anyone ought to know but Daniel Quinn feels is necessary to repeat and restate in a question-answer format (that is so annoying!) for the benefit of all. But the ideas that Daniel Quinn presents us and the evidence he offers are really innovative and interesting. Overall, it was decent. his ideas saved the book, but this story is absolute garbage.
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Summary: Want to change the world? Start here.
Review: Quinn's Ishmael started out with a difficult premise--a talking (well, telepathic) gorilla. But once I started to read the message instead of focusing on the details of the story, I was amazed! This book made me totally revise my standards and thinking, as well as opened the possibility of changing the world to me. A great book, like none I've ever encountered before. And once you finish this one, My Ishmael and The Story of B are wonderful complements which complete the philosophy.
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Summary: This is the book to set the new paradigm!
Review: Ishmael made me question a lot of my views, things we all take for granted from our "Mother Culture." Thus it was the perfect first reading for a physics course I took called "The Conscious Universe," which was all about rejecting cultural indoctrination and embracing unorthodox ideas. Quinn makes an excellent argument for why things are the way they are, through the development of agriculturalist/industrialist -- "Taker" -- society. He shows how we are at odds with ecological laws as fundamental and unchanging as the law of gravity, and suggests that our survival depends on us reconciling ourselves with these laws. Quinn envisions a widespread paradigm shift leading to great change. Reading this book will change the way you think about the world, and if enough people read it, it will change the world.
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Summary: The best book I have ever read!
Review: I have read all of Quinn's books. They all have inspired me. I look at the world and everthing on it in a diffrent light after reading Ishmael. I will never be the same. My High school English teacher gave me this book as a graduation gift. She promised me it would change my life, and it did. All of Quinn's novels have that effect on me.
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Summary: it is worth 6 stars
Review: In a nutshell, this book is truely magical. It completely expresses the ways in which we live and the reasons behind the destruction we are heading. I believe that there are ideas in this novel that could be inplicated upon the 'taker' civilisations of the world. I can find no words that can explain fully how i feel about this book. It is a must read. *********************************************************
Rating: 
Summary: This book will turn on a light in your head that was dim.
Review: When I first picked up a copy of Ishmael, I thought it would be written in the the typical "save the earth" format. I was gravely mistaken. This book should be required college reading, and without a doubt will be considered a classic within its own right. Ishmael is fast reading, and almost completely dialogue between two main characters. After you read this book, you will conscientiously divide everything in the world as "takers" and "leavers." Don't even hesitate to read this book!
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Summary: A reader disgruntled with all those stupid reviews
Review: I have just read all the 134 reviews of this book and am amazed at the extremes it seems to elicit. I noticed that most of the 1 star reviews come from people who can't even spell or punctuate, which makes me wonder just how much of the book they read in the first place. The rest of them seem to be complaining either about how the book was badly written, about how stupid the student was,or about how they had to read it for some class or other. First, this is not a piece of literature. It is an innovative way of making us see the light in respect to the problems we all face without being some boring philosophy book which no one would ever want to read.Second, I challenge anyone to think faster than the student, or to not be overwhelmed by this incredibly astute gorilla who is only trying to make the student, and therefore us, understand. I cannot imagine that anyone would have the answer to some of those complex and confusing questions any more easily than the student. The format only helps us to think for ourselves.Lastly, anyone who was forced to read it for school and is calling it bad writing has only missed the entire point. What did you think- that it was a Madame Bovary or War and Peace or something? Probably under pressured reading as it seems to have been, you would find nothing to your liking.Open your eyes !!!! Listen to Quinn.
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