Siddhartha

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Summary: simply powerful
Review: One day I was browsing through the bookstore because I had to read this book for my junior English class, and I was pleased by how short this book was. I never used to read too much, and It was this book that ignited my passion for reading. For a couple days after reading the book, I became detached from the world, from time, and from space, lost in a world of serene contemplation. The fact that a German author had such a deep understanding of Eastern philosophy amazed me. This is a must-read book!

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Summary: This has been perhaps the most meaningful book of my life.
Review: I have read Siddhartha several times. Each time I have read it was at a critical period of my life. The answer to the question of where does my path lie is always answered. If you have not read it, I heartily recommend it. If you have read it and enjoyed it as I have, I feel we have shared a tremendous experience.

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Summary: A book best read time and time again.
Review: I have read all of Hesse's works and this is the one I always return to. It is clear that the author knows both the occidental and oriental mind. Intergrating the threads common to both creates a unique work. It reads like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" with a mythic quality. It is worth reading in a single sitting every five years or so.

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Summary: As close to a life map as it comes
Review: I rarely give tens to anything. However, I feel very strongly that this book is a must-read for anyone who feels lost. I read this book last year, as a high school senior, at the suggestion of my English teacher. After wading through a beginning that I thought was somewhat discouraging, I found myself being spoken to on a level that I have never found before. At a time in my life when I felt lost in a whirlwind of forced maturity, I found myself calmed and comforted by a book I thought was just an assignment. Alongside Siddhartha, I found myself learning from my hardships and seeking out my own path. That was a much-needed dose of courage when I had none. Now I find myself in college. My first semester was not what I had long hoped for, and I again feel lost. I find solace in Siddhartha, relearning the lessons that he taught me. Hermann Hesse wrote a masterful book about finding one's path, and by doing so, he showed me the way. In this cynical world, inspiration like that is hard to come by....

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Summary: This was a very interesting-revealing book.
Review: I found this book to be very interesting, wrapping a marvellous tale quite adeptly around delicate philosophical ideas. This is a great book to read to broaden your philosophical horizons.

Rating:
Summary: Well Worth It!!
Review: This book was assigned in a religion class, which I dropped. I picked it up out of pure boredom and was so surprised to find such a moving and thought provoking novel. It is so seldom that a book comes along which can speak to your soul AND your mind. Hesse gave the world a wonderful gift in this book.

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Summary: A Sinners Guide To Life
Review: "In order to achieve sainthood, one must of followed the path of a sinner." This book states, one must experence everything in order to learn from life. He shows this by greedly hoarding money, to pay for sexual pleasures(teachings) from a prostitute, a woman whom he eventually falls in love with. But, during there last night together, holding her tight, passion filling the air, he realized that he was old, and that the money he spent on this prostitute was in vain. Fleeing from her, he goes to the river to commit suicide, hes just about to fall in, when he hears a sound... This sound changes his life forever...

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Summary: Best book I've ever read
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I first came across a worn copy of this book in my local library when I was thirteen. This book certainly did not provide all the answers for me, but it taught me the important lesson that every person must travel their own path to wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Special
Review: I read this book when I was 19. I am now 51. Having just discovered Amazon Books, I was "surfing" and searching out titles that came to memory. I also read the lyrical version in German in those now distant days, and spent much time looking for "Suleika", or "Zuleika". It brought me great peace of mind at that time, as I had to interrupt my college days in order to enter the Army and go to Vietnam. The book reads like the flowing river, and is in some ways an eternal story of search for meaning in life and realization. Like Sidhartha our search for meaning often ends at the beginning. Ultimately, we return to the basic and simple truths that were there when we were born. Growing up is a kind of struggle. Sidhartha is a story of idealism and virtue that survives ignorance, futility and evil. If in the end, we retain that idealism, our lives can be heroic and our conscience pure. Sometimes, I remember and recall the words: "From Sidhartha to Sidhartha is my coming and my going." It is a book of haunting beauty and depth of meaning. W. H. L./Bellevue

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Summary: Siddartha, why do we have to read it in school?
Review: I really disliked this book in a MAJOR way, I don't know if it's just me or what but I found myself falling asleep and putting off the REQIURED reading untill last min. While some of the values and morals the book teaches I will admit are worth while, like Sidd. says, I could have learned it in a prosistution house. I am in 10th grade and was required to read this book. I found it EXTREMLY boring and not worth the time I was FORCED to spend on it. I also unlike most high schoolers DO enjoy reading some and many books I find interesting I read on my own often. I personaly am glad we are done w/ our unit on Siddartha b/c you would have to pay me a lot of money to read it again. Also if any one out there is thinking that I am just a illeterate high school student, that has nothing better to do than go out and drink, maybe your right but, i do my homework I have all a's and am in ALL Honors corses, thank you very much. EMPinNC