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Rating: 
Summary: Gets 1 star because they wouldn't let me give ZERO stars.
Review: For anyone who can barely speak English, this is a great book -- it's so oversimplified and generalized and structured for the average 8 yr old that it's the most unreadable waste of paper that trees have ever given life for. It's just awful. It's actually too terrible to be funny. Avoid it like the plague.Here's some of the author's brilliance paraphrased: "So like, the song's like Spirit of Radio, you know, like the Radio has a spirit, like it's alive, but everybody knows a radio can't have a spirit, right? Or maybe it can if you think about it!" Plainly stated, if you're of the mindset and level of intellect that Rush's work appeals to you, then you're way overqualified to bother with this tragic waste of ink. Get Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush if you're that into the lyrics; if you're that into the band, Robert Telleria's Rush: Merely Players is about THE best thing I've ever read. If you want further insight into the mind behind the lyrics, read either Masked Rider or Ghost Rider by Neil himself -- THOSE are both literary masterpieces.
Rating:
Summary: Buyers remorse that inspires anger...
Review: I can't believe I bought the back cover hype, and purchased this book. Mr. Roberto should have begun most sentences with, "Uh...". Lacking confidence, he speculates on the shallow, obvious sides of Neal's brilliant lyrics. I can only surmise that a Writers Club Press saw dollar signs, conspired with a bogus editer, and convinced Mr. Roberto that his internet thoughts would make a good book. But, c'mon Len, this book is in your name, and your reputation. How could you have not fleshed out this manuscript to make it readable? Skip this book, and read Mystic Rythums.
Rating: 
Summary: Mirror Review
Review: I gave this book 4 stars only becuase he didn't review the early work FBN-Hemispheres. their early work simply uses allegory to convey the ideas Neil had on Human Behavior back in the day. Now he just writes his thoughts almost directly and to the point. Anyway, I am only a few pages into it(just got it yesterday) but I find it to be very enjoyable reading. I too am a fan of not only their music but mainly thier lyrics. Heck the older I get and the more I learn about myself as a human, the more Neils lyrics mean to me. It is also very nice having somebody to discuss his lyrics with and I find that in Mr. Roberto's book. It is my Rush conversation companion. I never looked at some of his lyrics the way Leonard did and I like getting different points of view. I should do my own book of the early stuff as a companion piece to this fine work!
Rating: 
Summary: Mirror on life
Review: I have been a fan of Rush for almost 20 years know, this started when I was a kid of 15, the rythim they use and the "fairy tale lyrics" just sounded cool to me. Now after 20 years I find the music still inspires me and through life's ups and downs the words can give direction and peace. As a non native english speaker I wanted to "understand" the meaning better. This book really gave a new depth to that.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Blind
Review: I have not read any other Rush related books, so my rating of this book is not a relative one. The author (and I'm being kind when I call him that) misses a lot of the meaning of the songs and, in my opinion sees things that I do not think Peart intended. I do not mind the latter since the reason we read books, poetry, or lyrics is to gain our own interpretation. My problem here is total lack of credibility. In the "About the Author" passage at the back of the book, there are two sentences which state about four facts: 1. He lives in Connecticut, 2. He works for a business media company, 3. He is a progressive music fan, and 4. He has been a Rush fan since the late 80's. Who cares where he lives, and his job could be a paper boy based on the vague description. So the only thing we are left with is the author is a progressive music and Rush fan. Since when does that make him an authority? But that's not all- It says he has been a fan since the late 80's. In the introduction the author tells about his life changing experience after hearing Tom Sawyer on the radio for the first time, presumably in 1981. To quote the author, "Listening to that song on the way to work was the start of my appreciation for and devotion to Rush and their music." So how devoted did he become to Rush in 1981? He attended his first Rush concert during the Presto Tour in 1989 or 1990. Now there is nothing wrong with all that, except that in my book that makes you a casual fan...definitely not an authority figure. Putting aside credibility, I find the writing to be simplistic. This is great if English is not your first language and you want to gain literal interpretation of the songs. This book reads like a high school or junior college book report. Sometimes lyrics are cited as indented, sometimes they are "quoted within the paragraph", and sometimes they are simply incorporated into the author's sentences. Maybe he is using them in context...I dunno...it's an amateur approach. I expect that any long time casual Rush fan (like myself) will learn little from this book. I know that Neil Peart draws upon literature and philosophy for his lyrics, but none of that is covered here. The research is lacking big time. I find it disturbing that a fan of Rush or Neil Peart could have the gumption to publish a book that is so lacking from a literary standpoint. I find it embarassing...I've tried to convince myself that the author did this simply to make a buck.
Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic interpretations of Rush songs
Review: This "book" began it's life as an e-Book, available as a download for a small fee. It reads like something you'd find on a Rush fan's personal website... especially the passages in which the author tells us "when I'm in (x) mood, I like to listen to (x) song." Furthermore, his observations about the meaning of Rush's songs are always obvious in nature. Roberto's "book" of song interpretations includes EVERY song that Rush released from "PERMANENT WAVES" (1980) to "TEST FOR ECHO" (1996). In this respect - the sheer quantity of songs discussed - it surpasses Carol Selby Price's book on Rush lyrical analysis "Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush." Price only analyzes a handful of songs in her book, and none of them are post-1990 ("PRESTO"). In every other consideration, this book is dramatically inferior to Price's book. At eighty pages total, "A Simple Kind Mirror" allots less than a page (and sometimes only a few sentences) to each song discussed. Len Roberto doesn't dig very deeply into the songs, and only scratches the surface when it comes to the depth of meaning in Neil Peart's lyrics. There's really nothing here that Rush fans haven't grokked themselves from listening to the songs. Price, with her background in Philosophy, offers us much more. Regarding the writing STYLE, I'm pleased to report that "Simple Kind Mirror" isn't riddled with spelling, grammatic, and syntax errors like so many Rush-related books. Roberto seems to possess an above-average vocabulary, and each sentence is well constructed. HOWEVER... throughout the book's 80 pages, one finds many sentences which seem like non-sequitirs given the sentences that precede them. (Roberto will offer us a theory about the meaning of a lyric, and in the next sentence give us a further idea that doesn't seem to fit the first. It's as if we're reading his stream-of-consciousness meanderings, and only by entering his brain could we understand how he arrived where he did.) I really can't recommend this title. If it's a scholarly and in-depth interpretation of Peart's lyrics that you're after, skip this book and buy Carol Selby Price's "Mystic Rhythms" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Simplistic interpretations of Rush songs
Review: This "book" began it's life as an e-Book, available as a download for a small fee. It reads like something you'd find on a Rush fan's personal website... especially the passages in which the author tells us "when I'm in (x) mood, I like to listen to (x) song." Furthermore, his observations about the meaning of Rush's songs are always obvious in nature. Roberto's "book" of song interpretations includes EVERY song that Rush released from "PERMANENT WAVES" (1980) to "TEST FOR ECHO" (1996). In this respect - the sheer quantity of songs discussed - it surpasses Carol Selby Price's book on Rush lyrical analysis "Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush." Price only analyzes a handful of songs in her book, and none of them are post-1990 ("PRESTO"). In every other consideration, this book is dramatically inferior to Price's book. At eighty pages total, "A Simple Kind Mirror" allots less than a page (and sometimes only a few sentences) to each song discussed. Len Roberto doesn't dig very deeply into the songs, and only scratches the surface when it comes to the depth of meaning in Neil Peart's lyrics. There's really nothing here that Rush fans haven't grokked themselves from listening to the songs. Price, with her background in Philosophy, offers us much more. Regarding the writing STYLE, I'm pleased to report that "Simple Kind Mirror" isn't riddled with spelling, grammatic, and syntax errors like so many Rush-related books. Roberto seems to possess an above-average vocabulary, and each sentence is well constructed. HOWEVER... throughout the book's 80 pages, one finds many sentences which seem like non-sequitirs given the sentences that precede them. (Roberto will offer us a theory about the meaning of a lyric, and in the next sentence give us a further idea that doesn't seem to fit the first. It's as if we're reading his stream-of-consciousness meanderings, and only by entering his brain could we understand how he arrived where he did.) I really can't recommend this title. If it's a scholarly and in-depth interpretation of Peart's lyrics that you're after, skip this book and buy Carol Selby Price's "Mystic Rhythms" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Puts "Simple" in "Simple Kind Mirror"
Review: While the writing style of this book is very simple, it also seems the author knew it was sparse on content by the way he used so many filler words. If there were more complex ideas he could have been more straightforward with the writing, but as it is he's lucky he got so many pages out of the few ideas he discusses. I literally could have written a better book with deeper discussion without further research, which the author claims to have done. (How is it possible to read everything about Rush online? Does that now include this review?) If you're writing a book about lyrics, don't even mention the instrumentals (more filler). About "Where's My Thing?" Roberto claims: "Continuing the Rush tradition of incuding an instrumental track on every album" (46). Aside from the English problems of that phrase, I could only find instrumentals on 5 of thier 16 (at the time) studio albums. If I was writing a book about the lyrics of a band that's something I probably woudn't get wrong. There are also other errors and weak filler observations. I hope an editor got fired. I consider myself a hard-core fan. Maybe check this out if you're a very casual fan or just getting into Rush lyrics and you're young. Otherwise, try Mystic Rhythms if you want to read about their lyrics on a more meaningful level. A couple things I liked about the book: (1) it's short, so less painful, and (2) I'm finished with it, so less painful.
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