Rating: 
Summary: Should be required reading for everyone
Review: 'Ishmael' tops the list of the most mind-changing books I've ever read. What's important about 'Ishmael' is not the story, but the ideas embedded within it. When you peel away the two characters in the cramped office, you have one of the most amazing tales ever told. And there's the beauty of it--the ideas are FACT, not fiction. This book must be approached with an open mind; of course we know that gorillas can't talk, telepathically or otherwise. Suspend your disbelief for a couple hours and digest what you learn in this novel. It will astound you.Another reviewer mentioned the book being repetitive (kind of like his review?), but frankly that claim is unfounded. Because they are so revolutionary, Quinn goes over his points with a fine-toothed comb to make certain his readers follow him. And if his readers are intelligent, open-minded, literate individuals, they'll have no problem doing so. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. Do yourself an enormous service and pick it up, but do so at your own risk. You'll not be the same after.
Rating: 
Summary: teachings of a preachy gorilla
Review: The ironic cleverness of casting a gorilla as a more evolved and educated being than man wears off after a few pages. "Ishmael" was recommended to me by a person who, at one time, intimidated me with her worldliness and intelligence. After reading it, though, I came to understand that most of the philosophy she was feeding me came directly out of this book, and that realization disillusions me somewhat. The title character is a worldly ape who seeks out a pupil "with an earnest desire to save the world." The unidentified narrator is the pupil, whose perceptions of living are changed drastically by the animal. The book is basically a drawn-out college lecture on the history of the "good" of mankind (Leavers) and the "bad" (Takers), as told by a sometimes annoyingly preachy primate. The unsubtle message is: if we, as humans, don't turn around our destructive behavior, we'll ultimately destroy the planet. "Ishmael" addresses issues of relevance and is actually a quick and easy read, but for anyone who's mulled over the facts of their own existence without help from the Idiot Box, none of it will come as a big surprise. The person I knew seemed to use the contents of this book to prop up her own 'intelligence,' but didn't necessarily take any of it to heart. Like Orwell, if it's not forced upon you in a school setting, "Ishmeal" can provide an intellectually stimulating and philosophical take on the condition of society; its premise is simple and it leaves you with some food for thought. But to get the hard facts about what's really going on outside your door and affecting your life (without the fictional guise), I'd suggest picking up something by Noam Chomsky instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I would like to start by saying this book doesn't even deserve one star. It doesn't deserve any. I found this talking gorllia to reapeat it self over and over and over. I thought this book was one of the worst books. You need to look up 90 words in the first 4 chaptes to understand what this anilmal is saying. It was filled with bad analigies. It helped me relize how horrible books can really be. I am not thinking about some books I have read in the past and thought they were bad but after this one all those book seem to be very interesting. I would like to know what the point of repeating your self over and over for a couple hundred pages does for an author. I would never recommend this book to anyone. This book should not be read in the schools. It talks too much about gods and informational stuff that no one really cares about. All this will do for students is help them to understand how boring reading can be. I don't think this book should be read in schools whatsoever. It forces kids to be "taught" about nothing and just waste your children's time in school and out. If someone wants to read it for fun, how ever that may be accompished, go right ahead. If you are into boring, not understadable, repetative books this is a book for you. Take this book out of the schools and lock it up. This book should not have won any awards. The only award I would give this book is for being the most boring book ever. I have read some boring books but this just tops it off. I will now separate my books into 2 catagories, the books that are boring but I can handel now after reading this book and just all around good books. Ishmael fits into neither the catagory of boring unreadable boring boring books. THe section of books where everything is repeated over and over agin until you can't handle it any more. You just want to scream and instead you fall asleep from being so bored you can't think anymore. I find sitting in a quiet room with Ishmael send you on an adventure that you want to get off of. This book is a sleeper. A recommendation-take it out of schools. This book does not deserve the credit and I don't know how people found it interesting. DONT'T READ THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: My Rocommendation-Don't Read This Book
Review: Reading this book was not fun at all. The book talks about nothing and I would never reccomend this book to anyone. This put me to sleep everytime i picked it up. I just wanted the book to end. And I was hapy when the book was all over. I had to read this book for a class I taking otherwise I would have never even picked it up after the first chapter. The only way I would reccomend this book is if it was for something so you could get to sleep at night. This book taught me one thing- how boring a book can be. I would rather sit in the corner of the room and have to stare at the wall for hours instead of reading this book. I don't recommend you to read this book and I am sorry for those of you who have to sit through it for any class.
Rating: 
Summary: Philosophy for dummies
Review: While this is a fun, easy read, it falls short of the dazzling reviews often bestowed upon it. This is a great book for anyone who has never had a basic thought about the nature of the universe and the divine in their lives. Perhaps this would be a lovely book to read early in adolescence when such questions really begin to poke at one's mind.
However, for anyone who has read anything even approaching philosophy or has ever done any serious soul searching, this book is probably far below you. I kept turning pages hoping for some novel, surprising, or, at the very least, interesting insights that would allow the book to be deserving of the lauds it has received. Unfortunately, from cover to cover this book makes no conclusions worthy of such praise. My advice: Skip it and find a more sophisticated, or at least, engaging read.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book I Ever Read
Review: This book is the best book I ever read. Ishmael warns us that the world is presently in danger by human expansion, but it also comforts us by explaining that there can be another way. Ishmael is fiction, but through the story Daniel Quinn has found an excellent way to explain his world changing ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: After seeing a few negative reviews, I began to wonder how one could not like this book? Then I figured it out. They are either totally stupid, lack any vision whatsoever, don't care that we're killing the world, or Mother Culture is screaming in their ears and they won't accept it. Anywho, this is the best book I have ever read, and I've read a lot of books. It doesn't matter that the dialogue is between a man and a gorilla, just as little as if the doctor in another book in a man or a woman. They are just two characters. So full of fabulous revelations that you never think of or can't stop thinking about... Best book ever. Get it.
Rating:
Summary: BEST BOOK I EVER READ
Review: Want to save the world? Read Ishmael. OK, so I consider myself intelligent, open minded, and I read everything with a skeptical eye. But never has a book changed my world view like Ishmael did. Call me idealistic, but I want to help save the world and Ishmael has shown me how its done. Oh, and if you don't think the world needs to be saved I suggest you pick up a newspaper sometime. People are starving, wars are happening, kids are working in sweatshops, and the environment is going down the toilet. Either you're going to help the world become a better place or you're not. For starters I suggest reading Ishmael.
Rating:
Summary: BEST BOOK I EVER READ
Review: OK, I consider myself an intelligent person and I read everything with a skeptical eye. There is no other book I've read which has changed my world view as much as Ishmael. Call me idealistic, but I want to save the world and I think reading Ishmael has given me the best idea on how to go about doing it. Oh, and if you don't think the world needs to be saved I suggest reading a newspaper sometime. Things may get worse before they get any better, but I'm ready to start now.
Rating:
Summary: Turn Your World Upside-Down
Review: The mission of 'Ishmael' is to reveal our collective modern mythology, to peel back the layers of assumptions and 'truisms' so we can stare the culture of maximum harm, our culture, straight in the face. Some cry, some laugh, and some scoff, but the appeal of this book cannot be denied: used in thousands of classrooms across the U.S., in subjects ranging from biology to history, literature to math. The message of 'Ishmael'is so fundamental, it seems to apply everywhere. Yet it is not an appeal to our spiritual salvation... it gives no perfect prescription for a utopian world... it is not a call for the 'uplifting' of a 'flawed' human race... rather it is a down-to-earth reckoning with what we are: human animals, born into the community of life on this planet, and facing extinction within this community (and very possibly dragging down a host of neighboring species with us). It is this reckoning that allows us to see our choices clearly, and to embark in a new direction, expressed a million different ways.
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