Rating: 
Summary: Great book, lessons for life
Review: Benjamin Hoff has created a masterpiece on human understanding and an inspiring view of the world as a whole. He combines Taoist theory and a sense of activism to portray Piglet, one of the world's most beloved and cherished characters, as the epitome of existence. I loved it!
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the Tao of Pooh
Review: In this book, Hoff gets more specific about the application of taoism to modern issues. Some people wont like this book because it has some unpleasant truths in it about today's world and they prefer to see the world through rose-colored glasses. But sometimes you have to see how things truely are before there is any chance to make them better. This is a book that was way ahead of where I was in my thinking before i read it, so I had to do some thinking and work a little to catch up. Thats what reading philosophy is all about. I enjoyed it immensely!
Rating: 
Summary: Read 365 Tao instead!
Review: This book was a major disapointment. Instead of building upon the foundation that was laid down in The Tao of Pooh, the author gets too emotional and rants and raves about the evils of the western world. However there still are many nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout the text. The poem included by Ko Hung is the most profound thought I have encountered in any text about Taoism thus far, and I am very gratefull the author included it here. However, the authors anger at the western lifestyle just gets in the way of his original message of contentment and happiness. Other authors such as Deng Ming-Dao, or Lao-Tsu himself are much better examples of pure Taoist thought. There is great wisdom in the author's book, it just takes too much time to sift through the anger to find it. Don't get me wrong The Tao of Pooh was groundbreaking but Piglets message of the virtue of the small in this book gets swallowed up by the authors anti-western attitudes.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all sequels are necessarily good
Review: Since the first one was enjoyed and liked, the second was a natural. Both for Hoff to write and for me to want to read. However, maybe it was because the it was no longer a novelty or because Hoff seemed to ramble a bit more in this one, but I didn't enjoy this book as much as his last, The Tao of Pooh. Near the end it seemed to devolve into more of a litany of the sins of mankind against nature than anything else. I still enjoyed it and there was still a lot of teachings and information that I learned. Plus there is a natural growth and extension from the first book that he is not necessarily repeating himself nor the ideas. But for whatever reason, it just didn't strike me as much.
Rating:
Summary: scratches the surface of the tao
Review: not as good as poohentertaining at least more author than tao read pooh instead! which one of the "three vinegar tasters" is hoff?
Rating:
Summary: Bitter
Review: Wow! What a difference 10 years makes. There were inklings of Hoff's bitterness in his first book, 'The Tao of Pooh,' but 'The Te of Piglet,' lets it all hang out. Hoff harangues against everyone, the media, teachers, feminists, scientists and Western society in general, while placing Chinese society on a pedestal as the epitome of Enlightenment. If we could all just be like the Chinese, or alternatively like the Native Americans, all our problems would go away. All of this seems so un-Tao like. Unlike his first book, he uses very little material from Winnie-the-Pooh series, and when he does, it is often in fictional dialogue between him and the characters. He also draws a lot more material from other sources such a Mark Twain and Thoreau. Mostly he uses the analysis of Tao to justify his own views, at one point reinterpreting passages commonly considered to mean something totally different than what Hoff intends. Hoff really has nothing new to say unless you want to hear his views on how we are destroying the environment, no argument here from me, but is this really the forum for it. What all this has to do with Piglet and Te is unclear. Then to go on and state that if we all follow the Way, all are environmental and societal problems will disappear. A nice sentiment, but a little childish. Isn't that the Tao of Way? Maybe. I highly recommend you read 'The Tao of Pooh' and ignore this book.
Rating:
Summary: Read the Tao of Pooh instead
Review: This book, unlike its predecessor, is bitter. It's a rage against Western Society, whose vindictive energies seemed to violate the philosophies of the "Tao of Pooh." I really enjoyed the first one, but I think perhaps this book gives us a more well-rounded - if sadder - charicature of the author.
Rating:
Summary: everyone should read for the goodness of the world
Review: It is one of the best books I haver ever read in my life. It portrays the wrongdoings of many people in this world that think personal satisfaction is the key for their life and that success is defined as one having a lot of green pieces of paper. The book tells people that if one flows like water, leads people in good ways, always thinks that the truth is the most important thing in the world, the world will benefit as a whole, and thus we all would-not only the rich people that scrounge money out of other people's hands - experience the harmony and the beauty that this world has to offer to us. The book enforces people to change the negative force into positive force, and that patience, sincerity, virtue, kindness, generosity, and fidelity should be the essence of human beings and that we all should apply these words of ardor into our everyday lives
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing sequel to a ground-breaking classic.
Review: "And so _The Tao of Pooh_ has become known as a Remarkable Success ... 'Stop this Remarkable Success, please,' I asked ... 'I don't intend a _Tao of Pooh_ sequel. I don't like sequels ... Good-bye.'"
So writes Benjamin Hoff in his introduction ("What? Another One?") to _The Te of Piglet_. For the sake of those of us who were delighted and profoundly affected by the author's earlier, now-classic work, I sincerely wish he'd followed his original inclination. The newer volume (published a decade after the original) is, frankly, so laden with bitter bombast that it completely loses the gentle, almost lyric, didactic effect of its predecessor. Instead of introducing us to centuries of Eastern wisdom, _The Te of Piglet_ assails us with Mr. Hoff's personal philosophy of What's Wrong with 20th Century Western Society. The following is tragicly all-too-typical of the book's content:
"In a recent election in our once-almost-environmentalist home state, for example, the majority voted to allow one of the nation's most notoriously unsafe and unnecessary nuclear power plants to continue operation despite its persistent violation of vital safety regulations; rejected a measure ..."
Well, you get the idea ... This sentence acutally lumbers on for another eleven(!) lines in the book, by the way. Simply -- and sadly -- incredible.
The Pooh characters are still here, as ingenuously charming as ever, but that is more in spite of than because of Hoff's paraphrases. If you loved _The Tao of Pooh_ (as I did), do yourself a favor: reread it and go on marveling at the nearly-magical writing abilities of ITS author.
Rating:
Summary: Hoff teaches us how to get around annoying everyday problems
Review: I guess before I read this book, I was a lot like Eeyore. Reading this book has made me realize that there's more to life than stress, stress, and more stress. You need to have fun every so often and leave your troubles for another day. You can get around your problems, just like water gets around a rock in a stream. This is a great book for those of you who are depressed or extremely stressed out. I highly recommend it! :
|
