Rating: 
Summary: How do you dispose of a book you hate?
Review: How do you dispose of a book you hate? I mean loathe. I mean looooathe.
Because I've got this copy of The Celestine Prophecy... I'm a confessed pack-rat. In my family this appears to be, like hemophilia, a sex-linked disorder affecting every other generation of males, which explains my maternal grandfather's penchant for collecting everything from buttonhooks to soapbox labels and mine for refrigerator magnets, stamps, business cards and books. Books are eliminated from my collection only when shelf space becomes a critical issue. So about this copy of The Celestine Prophecy... It is not that the spiritual tenets espoused in this book are implausible, for I have no trouble in believing in the words Charlotte spins in her web, in Valentine Michael Smith's ability to grok, or in Lestat's unusual appetite. It is that James Redfield, the author, has failed miserably in convincing me that those nine or ten (or however many there are) insights are anything by laughable, let alone insightful. This is not prophecy, but MacProphecy...seventy bazillion copies sold worldwide. At least the Big Mac provides some semblance of nourishment. Do I sound angry? Well, I am. Because I'm stuck with this copy of The Celestine Prophecy, which I hate. No, loathe. No, looooathe. I can't very well recommend it to my friends, and I don't particularly want to antagonize my enemies. Occasionally in the past I have donated books to patient libraries at various hosptials, but the last thing I want to do is give The Celestine Prophecy to someone who's already sick. Sell it to a used bookstore? I'd feel like a pimp. And while this is certainly the most telling argurment I have yet encountered in favor of book burning, I cannot quite bring myself to break that particular taboo.
The parallels to nuclear waste disposal have not escaped me. Shortly after reading this book I was on a bus riding from downtown Lima, Peru to the pier in Miraflores when a woman struck up a conversation with me about my recent hike of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. She asked me if I had read The Celestine Prophecy and cited the single reference in the book to Machu Picchu, giving me the page number from memory. She asked me what I though of the book. I told her I didn't much care for it. Before shunning me, she gave me a look of mixed derision and pity. Well, she was at least half right: I am to be pitied. Because I have this copy of The Celestine Prophecy...
Rating:
Summary: Y'all Need to Wake Up from La La Land
Review: This drum-circle, hippy-dippy, New Age, 'magic-happens', 'things happen for a reason', comfortable yuppy book makes me queasy with its simplistic ideas about love, enlightenment and destiny. Furthermore, it reads like an elementary-school book. I kept waiting for the line 'Mary had a little lamb...' Do people really fall for this domesticated dribble about 'what really goes on' when people interact? Do people really believe that the world is just a place where comfortable Americans can go on magical quests to find the secrets of self-realization and universal love? I hate to break the news to you, but we are not all one, we are not the world, and consumer Anglo America lives in a bubble of comfort and ignorance as fragile as the postulates intimated in this dribble of a story. By following the author's realizations, you will be more lost than ever. I recommend instead Robert Young Pelton's "The World's Most Dangerous Places" as a healthy antidote to this fantasy tome. Think positive yes. But don't throw away your capacity to reason in a rational manner. And please don't just rely on faith and magical little secrets to help bring about a better world. Its going to take a bit more sacrifice on our part than that. When the environmental problem came 'round, the biggest choice we were forced to make was 'Paper or Plastic?' in the Supermarket. Now with the real world of international strife knocking at our back door, its all about waving American Flags. And in our 'spiritual crises' (i.e.- there are a lot of lost souls out there), we read this book and dream that some magic 'not-a-coincidence' meeting or event will change everything in our lives. Put the flag in the paper bag, this book in the plastic, and check me the (...) out of this 'A Boy and His Dog' nightmare! Don't get me wrong- on many marks I'm a huge patriot- I just hate to see so many Americans mislead by books this. We are in a recession and a time or war. You can live by books such as the Celestine Prophecy only if you keep your head buried in the sand.
Rating: 
Summary: easy read
Review: I found this book to be entertaining. It was obviously fiction. Everything seems to fall into place way too easily for it to be an adventure. I can't say that this book changed my life, but I'm glad I read it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting patterns
Review: The Celestine Prophecy book is certainly an interesting book. I read it cover to cover, not skimming, and made mental note of each of the author's Insights. The first Insight, basically, is that coincidences are meaningful, and are happening more often, especially to those aware of and open to them. I began to notice coincidences very quickly - first the main character met someone who told him Insight one, but only knew the first Insight. Then, the main character met someone who told him Insight two, but they only knew the first two insights. Then, the main character met someone who told him Insight three, but she only knew the first three insights. Wow! Another interesting coincidence is that many people encountered by the main character speak in the same patterns - they are verbose, patient, kind and many of them explain their part of understanding of the Insights to the main character with the words: "Think about it...". After the fourth "Think about it" it gets a little weary. Moving outside the book to the reviews, many people encountered by this person speak in the same patterns. A large majority of those who speak glowingly of the book have frequent spelling or grammar errors. A large majority of the people who hate the book have very little spelling errors and use longer and less-common words. More interesting coincidences. A previous review said: "The book wasn't meant to have perfect english; if it did that it would be dry and boring." Umm, no. Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" and "The Poky Little Puppy" are both written in perfect English. To be written in perfect English does not necessarily mean that it will go over your head or will be dry and boring - at least one hopes so. Many positive reviews (by coincidence) have said to ignore the writing, though, and focus instead on the underlining message. These messages, as stated by many reviews previous, are simplistic and not original. The movie "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", to go to an extreme, had perhaps not the best writing, but contained the Insight: "Be excellent to each other". One would hardly take the opposite view, would you? To close, as this is basically me getting some thoughts of the book off my chest and being review 580+ only the seriously dedicated or bored will read this anyway, thank you for reading this far.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I thought it would be
Review: There is such hype for this book that I was really looking forward to some "insights". Nothing was really new to me. I was very disappointed. Because it is spiritual ideas presented in a ficitonal format I thought I would at least be entertained. No. It's not a well written novel at all. I think this book would have been more effective if written more as a straight self-help book. There are many more spiritual novels out now that are entertaining as well as enlightening. The Destiny of Miro for example is a great story with some spiritual thoughts thrown in. I recommend it much more than I can recommend "The Celestine Prophecy".
Rating:
Summary: Pure Fiction
Review: As the inside cover of the book explains, this is a parable. That is it is fiction. Do not read this book for anything other than it's fictional entertainment. So many people are sucked in to the mysticism and ramblings of the author. There is no basis of fact in this book. Things are not the way they are described in the insights. This is just the author's view of the way he wishes things were. Don't believe it.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: What an absolutely brilliant book. Such a refreshing change to most 'religous' books that seem to force issues upon readers. I can honestly say that after reading this book, I made some changes to my life, my life is now 1000 times better and very positive. I cannot find a negative point about the book. Now, I have introduced this book to several of my friends and relatives, who have all been changed the same way that I have. Incredible, Incredible and Incredible. Buy this book now if you want to have a better life and be a better person.
Rating:
Summary: Don't force yourself to read it...wait for the right time
Review: I'm not giving this book 5 stars because I think it's excellently written, because it's not. I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a book that I think needs to be read. Oddly enough people offered it to me many times in the past and I always resisted reading it until recently. Perhaps this is because before I wasn't ready, but by the time I read it, I had already discovered most of the insights within on my own. It has gotten alot of bad reviews, and many of them mention having to struggle through the book. This is probably because most of the people who wrote them were not ready for it. This book has more nuggets of truth in it than I have found in almost any other book, but only read it if you feel like it. Good luck.
Rating:
Summary: A Life Changing Book
Review: I was reading some of the reviews and was surprised that there were so many negative ones. This book to me was incredible. I too had gone through some pretty hard changes in my life and when I read this book it re-awakened a spiritual side in me that I hadn't seen in a while. If you pick up this book and can't get through it then put it on your shelf and pick it back up when you too need a positive influence. If you are looking for a positive book that will help guide you towards a positive change in your life then this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Read and Decide for Self
Review: Beware of right-winging Christians who try to undermine the book - Beware of the left-winging new-agers who try to hype the book. Read it with an open mind and decide for yourself. I for one enjoyed the read. Years later, some of Redfield's philosophies have stayed with me.
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