jean

The Four Loves offers keen insight from Lewis on the main ways that we humans love each other. There are a great deal of moments in the book that seem to wipe the fog away from the reader's eyes and grant luminescent clarity. On the other hand, there are many more instances of Lewis making assumptions and statements that are unfounded and even totally untrue or unfair.The worst part is that he does not try to justify any of those, except for mentioning a few times that he could be wrong–it's just his perspective after all. Maybe it's just because this is the first book of his I've read in full after becoming an English major(aka snob), but that doesn't really hold up. I feel this book would have been much better if it had been maybe twice the length, so that he could explain and support his points more. As I've paid more attention to Lewis's style I've noticed he really is very obvious with putting his perspective(and only his perspective) into his writing. It comes out in his fantasy work too(which is why they're all allegorical–though [b:Till We Have Faces 17343 Till We Have Faces C.S. Lewis https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381692105s/17343.jpg 2072983] is of a slightly different nature and ends up being his best by far), and in the more philosophical/theological writings he comes off as didactic and somehow both close-minded but versatile. In books such as [b:Mere Christianity 11138 Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1414551420s/11138.jpg 801500] and [b:Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life 121732 Surprised by Joy The Shape of My Early Life C.S. Lewis https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381407473s/121732.jpg 877675] that style works much better due to their autobiographical and devotional nature. Glaring flaws notwithstanding, what really makes the work worth the read are those nuggets that get you thinking and seeing what you didn't before. Despite my criticism I really do appreciate C.S. Lewis's work–he's my all-time most read author. I can tell that what he has said here is going to be valuable in my life. Even so, three stars because in my opinion, it's in these kinds of books(see also [b:The Abolition of Man 79428 The Abolition of Man C.S. Lewis https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418843138s/79428.jpg 14823978]) that we find Lewis at his weakest. How ironic that the beautiful Christian wisdom within is their redeeming quality!

Super interesting book I'll probably never stop thinking about. It was a little hard to get into but definitely worth it. The words of the Underground Man are full of meaning and hilarious at some points as well. Still don't know enough of philosophy to comment on the actual content though...but it was a good read(tm).

Craig is clearly capable, but somehow he still thinks its acceptable to answer many questions in the book by doing this: without God/Christianity, life would be meaningless, therefore God/Christianity are true/you should believe in them. Or, he refutes the statement that “God is not evident to all of those that earnestly seek him” by saying that those that don't find God self-evident are in denial or just need more time. This is supposed to be a book based on reasonable responses, implying reason is employed in the answers to the “tough questions.” Instead of reason, WLC touts faith.

The whole thing is just baffling. I hope his other books are better.

Offers a beautiful and deep, if brief, glimpse into the life of C.S. Lewis. Surprised By Joy is less of an autobiography and more of a masterful sketch–I feel like I have come to know, look up to, and identify with Lewis more through this book rather than know all about his life as a whole. The heavy literary references throughout the book(common for Lewis but so much more prevalent here) are a delight to a person like myself and leave a trail for me to follow, to read what he read and maybe catch glimpses of what he experienced through my imagination, guided by his distinctive voice. Lewis reaches deep into his personal life and perspective and soars high with prose that breathes life into lofty descriptions of his most powerful experiences. So totally worth the read.

overall, i respect robert for writing this and putting up the whole thing + audiobook + illustrations for free. i'd recommend it if you really like the podcast BTB and robert's sense of humor. i listened to it because i was kind of tired of the other content i was listening to, and this was a welcome break. to be honest, i probbably wouldn't have read the whole thing if i'd tried to read it as it's not the sort of thing that i usually read. i give him a lot of points for making a story that had me listening straight through despite the flaws that i think are present in it.

probably the biggest detractor for me: the incredibly frequent mention and description of hyperbolic drug use was really tiresome.

the second biggest was that i felt like a lot of what was happening was on the nose/over-explained by the book itself.

on the other hand, a big positive was that (ignoring the couple of clichés and repetitions) a lot of the descriptive prose was creative and fresh to me.

not sure if this exists, but if this is really a vision of the US/NA that Robert sees happening, i'd love to hear more detail re: how he thinks it could come about exactly.

i'll probably end up checking out the sequel to know what happens to certain characters, so props there too.

Certainly not a bad book to read if you're interested in learning the basics of the field. If you want a perspective of how a SE should act, you'll get a lot of that. I think I realized maybe 1/3 of the way through that this wasn't really what I was looking for (I guess I just want a compendium of amazing stories), but I finished it nonetheless because a) there was an audiobook and b) I still found it interesting enough. It did feel a little formulaic to me and even repetitive at some points (and a lot of Hadnagy's illustrations felt lame for lack of a better word), but I still felt that if you were trying to break into this field it had good info.

Quite light on content, but it does contain a decent amount of helpful information and exercises, especially if you are new to this sort of thing. I suggest following along physically when you hit the exercise explanations.

To be honest, mainly purchased (new) to support Low, as I've read a lot of his advice over years and haven't bought Overcoming Gravity yet. The other reason I went for it is that I got a standing desk and have been interested in maintaining/improving my posture.

I liked it, but it was certainly not spectacular like Shakespeare's big plays. The plot has more issues than most of his other plays; what is really most interesting about it is how problematic it is. Still, the plot, though not original, brings up a great deal of questions that are still relevant today, and the characters (namely Isabella) are pretty good for how short this is. Three stars simply because I really dislike how he ended up throwing everything together at the end, but the themes are nice.

Mishima knits the complexities and tensions of the narrator together until, tying off knot after knot, you feel his prison yourself. From end to end the emotions he suffers are made beautifully clear.I do wonder if Mishima had read Dazai's [b:No Longer Human 194746 No Longer Human Osamu Dazai https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422638843s/194746.jpg 188338], which came out the year before, as there are some strong similarities between the way each narrator describes his life.You know when you read or watch something that's so good you immediately throw yourself into the rest of what that creator has to offer? That's what I'm doing as soon as I hit “Save.”I have just one question...Why did i wait so long to read Mishima?

just okay i thought, after finishing it. but i'll credit it for helping me along while i cleaned.

i will say that i thought the partial frame tale device(recounting to a detective) was handled poorly; just put the detective's dialogue into the text, rather than having the narrator repeat it all back before answering in a completely insane, unnatural way.