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Learning from Wonderful Lives: Lessons from the Study of Well-being Brought to Life by the Personal by Nick Baylis
484p large hardback with dustjacket, as new
484 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2005
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January 12, 2010
Living on auto-pilot toward joy and bliss and gently expanding in all directions is optional. But what else would one want to do?
Nick Baylis has heroically leaped in that direction. Good for him.
The book is a door stopper. 2" thick. Great for beating your boyfriend with, if that's your thing.
Rather than simply describe wonderful lives, he takes what he perceives to be important principles, and then chapter by chapter, then attempts to illustrate his points.
As luck will have it, he makes huge use of Tiger Woods. That's OK. Tiger's an outstanding performer ... it's just that in our culture, where small-mindedness paired with the benefits of taking the high ground as a victim pays brief dividends, it's all a bit distracting.
While I am at it, my other 'less than glorious' is that Nick writes in a somewhat oral ('aural'?) style, which doesn't work for me for 480 pages.
So what?
The book is a gold mine of valuable insights and perspectives. There are other things to do to if you want to fly (dance on a table?) but if you want to dig a little deeper into questions of flourishing, and living meaningfully, this tome has a lot to offer.
See Nick's other (smaller) books. Also Fritz: Your Life as Art, and TED talks on Happiness (GOOGLE SEARCH :-)
Nick Baylis has heroically leaped in that direction. Good for him.
The book is a door stopper. 2" thick. Great for beating your boyfriend with, if that's your thing.
Rather than simply describe wonderful lives, he takes what he perceives to be important principles, and then chapter by chapter, then attempts to illustrate his points.
As luck will have it, he makes huge use of Tiger Woods. That's OK. Tiger's an outstanding performer ... it's just that in our culture, where small-mindedness paired with the benefits of taking the high ground as a victim pays brief dividends, it's all a bit distracting.
While I am at it, my other 'less than glorious' is that Nick writes in a somewhat oral ('aural'?) style, which doesn't work for me for 480 pages.
So what?
The book is a gold mine of valuable insights and perspectives. There are other things to do to if you want to fly (dance on a table?) but if you want to dig a little deeper into questions of flourishing, and living meaningfully, this tome has a lot to offer.
See Nick's other (smaller) books. Also Fritz: Your Life as Art, and TED talks on Happiness (GOOGLE SEARCH :-)
Displaying 1 of 1 review