Rating: 
Summary: Contemplate a dead bird
Review:
Contemplating a dead bird changed my life.
Urinating while drinking water didnt. But it might have changed someone elses!
Hannelore
the impeccable one
Rating: 
Summary: Curiousity
Review: Certainly a coffee table book. Droit gives you suggestions for ways to attempt to sort of break your mind out of the normal perceptions of reality. Some of the ones I read, I had experienced previously, and noted that indeed I had wondered at, at the time, such as "Rediscover a childhood scene that seemed larger", "Watch dust in the sun", "Wake up without knowing where", and "Work on a holiday". I think my favorites were "Drink while urinating" and "Empty a word of its meaning".
Rating:
Summary: great book, but unfortunately not for everyone
Review: everyone could benefit from this book, but since not everyone could appreciate or understand what this book is, i could not reccommend it for everyone. this book is 101 thought experiments that, if done properly, will change how you look at things and spark new ideas and thoughts. experiments range from following ants to randomly calling people to sitting and imagining various things. there are many people who will not see the point of the book, or feel foolish or feel it is a waste of time, but chances are those people arn't reading this review. as trite as this sounds, you get out of it what you put into it. if you want this book to change yourself or become "a fuller person", you have to want it to happen. this book is a great guide, but ultimately it is you who change yourself. this book will show you how but you have to put in the effort. so i would definately reccommend it if you are looking for a way to maximize your philisophicle life.
Rating: 
Summary: Too pretentious
Review: I saw this on the site with "This Book Will Change Your Life", which is a book I LOVE, but when I read through it, I was disappointed. It's less like Benrik and more like Dr. Phil, or Sarah Ban Breathnach. "Watch dust in the sun", "Inhabit the planet of small gestures", "Imagine a pile of human organs", and "Find the infinitesimal caress" are just a few of the cheesy "experiments" in this book. I especially despise number 47, which is "Weep at the cinema", which normally I'd be all for it. But the book suggests seeing something like a romantic comedy and FORCING yourself to care so much about the characters that you'll cry if they cross the street without holding their honey's hand. Caring about the character is supposed to be the film maker's first priority, ergo, this should be the easiest thing about one's moviegoing experience, ergo, it shouldn't be forced. You'll just end up frustrated, unless you're the type to cry whilst reading Hallmark cards or while watching movies on Lifetime. If so, this book is perfect for you.
For the rest of us, this book is crap. It only gets one star because Amazon won't let me give it zero.
"This Book Will Change Your Life" is a better read. It actually gets you OUT OF YOUR HOUSE AND HEAD in order to initiate change. "Astonish" does not. It is full of imaginings and innocuous make-believe you can do in the comfort of your own home. The point in changing your life is to escape comfort. Have courage, folks, and buy "This Book Will Change Your Life" instead. You won't regret it!!!
Rating:
Summary: Too pretentious
Review: I saw this on the site with "This Book Will Change Your Life", which is a book I LOVE, but when I read through it, I was disappointed. It's less like Benrik and more like Dr. Phil, or Sarah Ban Breathnach. "Watch dust in the sun", "Inhabit the planet of small gestures", "Imagine a pile of human organs", and "Find the infinitesimal caress" are just a few of the cheesy "experiments" in this book. I especially despise number 47, which is "Weep at the cinema", which normally I'd be all for it. But the book suggests seeing something like a romantic comedy and FORCING yourself to care so much about the characters that you'll cry if they cross the street without holding their honey's hand. Caring about the character is supposed to be the film maker's first priority, ergo, this should be the easiest thing about one's moviegoing experience, ergo, it shouldn't be forced. You'll just end up frustrated, unless you're the type to cry whilst reading Hallmark cards or while watching movies on Lifetime. If so, this book is perfect for you.
For the rest of us, this book is crap. It only gets one star because Amazon won't let me give it zero.
"This Book Will Change Your Life" is a better read. It actually gets you OUT OF YOUR HOUSE AND HEAD in order to initiate change. "Astonish" does not. It is full of imaginings and innocuous make-believe you can do in the comfort of your own home. The point in changing your life is to escape comfort. Have courage, folks, and buy "This Book Will Change Your Life" instead. You won't regret it!!!
Rating:
Summary: A smallish, slightly blemished gem...
Review: If you liked "Be Here Now", "Einstein's Dreams", Alan Watts or the I Ching odds are you'll find this book quirkily compelling. Would have gotten 5 stars save for the too frequent gloomy bent of many of the thought exercises. Why not a joyful instead of a "dread"ful bus (exercise #23) or a flying flock rather than a dead bird (#35)? Not that everything requires the ubiquitous "(:" but life ain't really all that bad. This is, nonetheless a most creative book filled with "ah ha" moments and poetic turns of phrase, e.g. "there's no need to kill time. It dies by itself..." Enjoy but keep the Prozac handy if you trend toward depression...
Rating:
Summary: A smallish, slightly blemished gem...
Review: If you liked "Be Here Now", "Einstein's Dreams", Alan Watts or the I Ching odds are you'll find this book quirkily compelling. Would have gotten 5 stars save for the too frequent gloomy bent of many of the thought exercises. Why not a joyful instead of a "dread"ful bus (exercise #23) or a flying flock rather than a dead bird (#35)? Not that everything requires the ubiquitous "(:" but life ain't really all that bad. This is, nonetheless a most creative book filled with "ah ha" moments and poetic turns of phrase, e.g. "there's no need to kill time. It dies by itself..." Enjoy but keep the Prozac handy if you trend toward depression...
Rating:
Summary: Drinking water while urinating
Review: My friend, Hannelore, let me borrow this book. She normally has impeccable taste in literature - so I can find no explanation for this aberration, except, perhaps, the recent death of her rabbit. An interesting concept, killed by poor imagination and lack of wit. Please spare me the pain of further such banal drivvle. Dreary, dreary, dreary.
Rating:
Summary: Play
Review: This book is like propaganda for the existentially playful. If you are neither existentially inclined nor playful, this book will do nothing for you. If, however, you are both, you will like it a lot. If you have read and enjoyed Walker Percy, that will probably help.
This is not a self-help book. If you are odd, it will probably help to make you odder.
Rating:
Summary: Experiments with your head
Review: This book serves two purposes:(1) It is a talking point. Leave it somewhere visible, say on your coffee table, and just wait for the reactions: incredulous, unbelieving, provoking fascinated expressions, engrossed furrowed foreheads and wry smiles. (2) It is a book of practical experiments. There is something for everyone. Count to a thousand - seems simple? Try it. Its not the monotonous regular task simple mathmatics might suggest. It is more of a rollercoaster ride, with clickety click ups, exhilerating downs, mind numbing bends... And what do we learn? According to Pol Droit - that 1,000 is a very, very big number. And 1,000,000 is emotionally incomprehensible. He's right. Call to yourself, play the animal, imagine a pile of human organs, empty a word of its meaning, kill people in your head, take the tube without going anywhere specific. This is self-help without the Oprah factor, and with lashings of delicious humour. Pol Droit's experiments are designed to help committed experimenters see the world, and their experience of it, in a context slightly out of the ordinary. Freeze frame a moment, an action, a thought and, like watching someone dancing to music without the music, the fragile architecture on which our experience of the world rests is exposed. Try it, you might even like it. Better (or worse) still, you might discover a dark corner of yourself you never wanted to know about.
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