Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: A lot of people recommended me this book but I was very dissapointed after I read it. Spiritualism meets Indiana Jones!!! This is one of the few cases where a movie may be better than the book.
Rating: 
Summary: hokey, poorly written, overhyped
Review: I have to say that I was somewhat impressed by some of the reviews this has already received. What's one more going to hurt? If I'd have read the others first, I wouldn't have wasted 4 hours reading this boring novel. My first complaint is the undue critical acclaim this novel has received. I don't know how anyone with a college degree in literary arts would care to comment one way or the other about this book. This book is not really a horrible book, its just a juvenile attempt at profundity that in no way measures up to it's peers. My second complaint has to do with the poor grammatical constructions, misplaced pronouns, and illogical conclusions scattered at every turn. I had to read a few sentences/paragraphs multiple times because the punctuation and or referential pronouns would attest to a character having a second or third person conversation with their self. My fourth complaint is the ridiculous predictability of each and every 'suspenseful' moment. My fifth complaint is the premise of the book and it's total lack of originality. Essentially this is another 'method for utopia' written into a fantasy novel. The novel basically states that as soon as mankind begins to understand the insights (ie follows every rule to a 't') the race will evolve. As far as I know, there are few religions or philosophies that can't make this claim. The problem is that there's never been an idea/rule-book in human history that the whole of human kind has followed to a 't.' --Hence human kind has not yet seen the kind of evolution 'prophesized' in the novel. This is just another 'if everyone saw the world as I do...' novel. If you can't resist reading it because you've heard so much about it, then pick one up at the used bookstore...and replace it when you're through--this book is not a keeper. Last of all, I truly can't explain why I kept feeling as if the narrator was a female; despite actual references dictating otherwise. Did anyone else have this impression?
Rating: 
Summary: Celestine Travesty
Review: About 6 years ago, post-college, I bought this book, as several acquaintances who SEEMED to be very bright and inspired recommended it to me, with a sly wink and a knowing nod and a comment like, "THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE". I took it with me on a visit to Paris, opened it up at a small, artsy cafe, thinking that if I were on the verge of being extraordinarily enlightened, it had better happen somewhere pretentious and beatnik-y. I spent the afternoon laughing out loud and sharing various amateurly-written excerpts with my roommate. We had tears rolling down our cheeks, disbelieving of the fact that someone went as far as to PUBLISH this pile of rubbish and that it purports to be so deeeeeep. The ONLY reason I managed to get through the book is that I was dying to know what the hype was all about and how so many people could be swayed/inspired by this stupid, melodramatic story and by the writing style, reminiscent of my own early elementary school creative writing attempts. I wanted to discover the big mysterious epiphany about which everyone had been raving. Turns out, there wasn't one. I consider myself to be quite down-to-earth, spiritual and open-minded; yet while slogging through this foolish tripe, felt as if some dirty, demented hippie had just puked up the literary equivalent of The Woodstock Brown Acid.
Rating: 
Summary: A very inspiring tale!
Review: I understand why some people rate this book very highly while others rate it very low. If you have been exploring the deeper meaning of life and your own psyche for a while already, this book seems too simplistic, pop-culturish, and beginner oriented and perhaps somewhat misleading. If you are beginning the search for deeper meaning, this book is interesting, exciting, inspirational, and spiritually enlightening. When I first read this book, I was very inspired. It may even have been the book that started my search. Now after about nine years, I have found that although a number of the messages in this book are somewhat misleading, it gives us enough food for thought to become motivated in the inquiry. A alternative superb and more advanced book with more psychology and less "psychic" types stuff that explains this material very very well is "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is written in a way that is easily understandable to beginners but the content is just so amazing that even people who have been reading about this stuff for years will be enlightened by it! Wonderful stuff!
Rating:
Summary: New Age Mumbo-Jumbo
Review: There are so many things wrong with this book that I don't know where to begin. The story is flat and uninteresting, the characters are undeveloped, historic facts are incorrect and show that the author has no deep knowledge of the subject. Most of the ideas are borrowed and mixed up in one unintellegent mess. The author does nothing more than utilize New Age terms that became so popular in the past few decades.
The popularity of this book only shows how little people understand true spirituality and how eager they are to buy into anything that indicates "New Age". This is sad and disturbing. Too many people throw over-used words like aura, energy fields, etc. all over the place and pretend to have deep knowledge and insight. And too many swallow it without questioning.
This book is bad-written fiction and should not be taken seriously. There are many books that deserve much more appreciation than this one. Americans are not ready for discovering their true spirituality just yet (or maybe they are not even interesting in doing so) and this book proves just that.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new or original
Review: I really don't understand what the whole fuss is about and why this book is named by some "the number one bestseller in America of all times".
Seriously, anyone familiar with yogic concepts, buddist traditions, or even Carlos Kastaneda's books knows all these so-called "insights" by heart. There is NOTHING new in this book and I cannot believe how many gullible readers are out there. This is just a novel that repeats information that's been around for centuries. Energy fields, power of prayer, purpose of life, power of love and helping others, etc. - children in India can tell you thousand times more about these topics than this book.
Having read hundreds of esoteric books, I can tell that this book is nothing but a disappointment.
The only reason I gave this book two starts was because it was at least an entertaining reading.
Peace to all.
Rating:
Summary: If Only it were true
Review: I read this book for the first time about 3 years ago and no one told me it wasn't true so I was so excited about getting in to this school of thought and finding more followers. When I approached the friend who loaned it to me, I was distraught for days to find that it is fiction. Then, I reread it and now I just don't care if it's fiction, I'm going to follow it anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for Deep Thinkers
Review: I was surprised to read that others didn't enjoy this book as much as I did. I have read it several times and each time I finish I have a renewed excitement about life. It gives deeper meaning to our everyday experiences and mishaps. It made me much more aware of my impact on the world and others. I believe that if we all read this book the world would be a better place to live in. Buy this book!!!
Rating:
Summary: The BEST present I ever recieved
Review: I recommend reading this book in times of trouble, whenever you are down or wondering why such crap things have happened. It may not be tolstoy, It may not be dickens, but it manages to show you in a non religious sense(I am NOT religious in any way), just how people ARE! Its actually really scary at points after you read this you look at people and react to eople in a different way, for a short time in my experience, then it fades, then you read it again...etc etc..it really is a GOOD read! some things most of us will never be able to do, but hey, it honestly makes you THINK about yourself, and why ou do things, react in certain ways and I can genuinly say, it has helped me realise, that not everyone that initially comes across in a certain way, is really the way they come across....its just the way they have learned..this book can help overcome your fears and prejudices - about anything. Simply put-its fab!
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Self Realizartion
Review: I donot have words to describe this book. I am at 212/246 page.
Just cannot wait to finish it.
There are known unknowns and this book talks about all that in a very good manner. The authors expressions are very well understood and have been communicated to the reader in an excellent fashion.
I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Have fun reading it.
Explore all possibilities.
Samir Lal
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