Enthusiastic Reader > Recent Status Updates

All people want is love! Not true. People want comfort and challenge in reasonable amounts as well.

Excited and enthusiastic aren't synonyms. And no, sometimes people DON'T notice.

Bit of Horton there: Say what you mean, and mean what you say. That doesn't suck.

Victim blaming FTW!

well it's NICE when you can tell jerks that you don't want them around, but GUESS WHAT that's not always an option.

Joy knows that one of the customers needs her so she abandons her ailing father to preach to George.

Yeegh.

Using your book to promote your website. Because of course you do.

Okay, not-crap here, albeit poorly presented. Reflecting on good things helps to create a grateful attitude.

A better illustration is a lost item. If your phone is missing, you are more likely to find it if you look for it than if you watch TV instead. Good things are all around us, but we see more of them when we actively look for them.

"We can't control the events in our life but we can control how we perceive them and our perception and response to the events determine our outcome."

NO.

Perception is minimally influential; our response to the situation and THE SITUATION ITSELF determines the outcome. Responding in the same way to different events will lead to different outcomes. How is this not obvious?

ISTG this book was written by a robot.

"TELEPHONE TELEPATHY" IS NOT A SCIENTIFIC NAME, MARTY.

Mmmhm. The "Law of Attraction." Suuure.

From Wikipedia: "In 1877, the term "Law of Attraction" appeared in print for the first time in a book written by the Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, in a context alluding to an attractive power existing between elements of spirit."

Oh, yeah, I'm DEFINITELY convinced.

"Sometimes we have to see what we don't want to know what we do want." Okay. That sentence isn't crap. The implication that we have to GO THROUGH bad things (larger context) is crap.

"Our thoughts are powerful because they are loaded down with energy."

WHAT.
THE.
HECK.

"Einstein taught us that matter is energy." NO. Einstein taught us that matter and energy are different arrangements of the same stuff. You could just as easily say that energy is matter.

UGHHH.

"You create your world." Uh, no. No, you don't. You can influence it, sure. But the world around you exists with or without you.

Maybe that's not what the author means, but if it's not, then he should have used different wording. Book still sucks.

28 - "no one can choose your attitude but you." I do like that the author chose "attitude" rather than "mood" or "emotion."

I'm REALLY working hard to find ANYTHING to like about this book.

And we're finally getting to Rule 1. Jeez.

At least I won't lose much of my life on this crap.

GASP! George's flat tire was actually a stroke of GOOD luck because it may have SAVED HIS LIFE!

except if he'd actually checked his mail before tossing it he would have gotten his brakes fixed too.

George is a self-absorbed jerk.

Actually on page 1 now. And we get a parable! Lovely. A story that never happened that's supposed to make us accept the ideas it illustrates.

*eyeroll*

Who IS this author? Like... why does anyone listen to him? His website says he has a master's in "Teaching" from Emory University... but I don't see it offered. I can't find anything out about him except for his books and his "rah-rah-rah" talks.

How can we be certain "Jon Gordon" isn't a robot??

(still xvi) And then at the start of the very next paragraph "Positive energy is very real." As opposed to just somewhat real, I guess? Not only is there no footnote or citation to any sort of source of support, there's not even any kind of justification WHATSOEVER! Like, not even one he just pulled out of his butt.

Actually on xvi in the intro and I'm already nauseated.

Negative people are monstrous ("energy vampires") which is just a delightful way to think about your fellow human beings.

(continued) I want to tell Gogol to LISTEN to his father, to cherish their time together, not just to tolerate it. But when you're 14, you don't understand that.

It makes me think of one of my favorite poems in the English II book - Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays." The ending is so poignant:

What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

I'm absolutely loving this. The prose is simple and vivid and beautiful. And this bit in particular, when Gogol receives the book, is particularly significant for me right now. My parents aren't young anymore. My father's older sister is gone. My mother's oldest sister and oldest brother are both gone. (continued)

25% = p. 75, 50% = p. 150, 75% = p. 225

p 194 - "Historian Manning Marable wrote, 'Freedom is first and foremost a public understanding among the members of a society to protect and defend any opinions that are unpopular or at odds with opinions held by those who actually exercise power and privilege.'"