Rating: 
Summary: it is worth 6 stars
Review: In a nutshell, this book is truely magical. It completely expresses the ways in which we live and the reasons behind the destruction we are heading. I believe that there are ideas in this novel that could be inplicated upon the 'taker' civilisations of the world. I can find no words that can explain fully how i feel about this book. It is a must read. *********************************************************
Rating: 
Summary: This book will turn on a light in your head that was dim.
Review: When I first picked up a copy of Ishmael, I thought it would be written in the the typical "save the earth" format. I was gravely mistaken. This book should be required college reading, and without a doubt will be considered a classic within its own right. Ishmael is fast reading, and almost completely dialogue between two main characters. After you read this book, you will conscientiously divide everything in the world as "takers" and "leavers." Don't even hesitate to read this book!
Rating:
Summary: A reader disgruntled with all those stupid reviews
Review: I have just read all the 134 reviews of this book and am amazed at the extremes it seems to elicit. I noticed that most of the 1 star reviews come from people who can't even spell or punctuate, which makes me wonder just how much of the book they read in the first place. The rest of them seem to be complaining either about how the book was badly written, about how stupid the student was,or about how they had to read it for some class or other. First, this is not a piece of literature. It is an innovative way of making us see the light in respect to the problems we all face without being some boring philosophy book which no one would ever want to read.Second, I challenge anyone to think faster than the student, or to not be overwhelmed by this incredibly astute gorilla who is only trying to make the student, and therefore us, understand. I cannot imagine that anyone would have the answer to some of those complex and confusing questions any more easily than the student. The format only helps us to think for ourselves.Lastly, anyone who was forced to read it for school and is calling it bad writing has only missed the entire point. What did you think- that it was a Madame Bovary or War and Peace or something? Probably under pressured reading as it seems to have been, you would find nothing to your liking.Open your eyes !!!! Listen to Quinn.
Rating: 
Summary: wordy, repetitive, insulting.
Review: Peers have been telling me i ought to read 'ishmael,' and it's counterpart 'the story of b' for quite some time now, because they will "change my life" and "allow me to percieve society in a new light," so finally this past winter break i buckled down like the good book nerd and traversed my way through them. what a dissapointment!!! if one were to make an abridged version of each book, detailing the plot and important concepts discussed, they would have difficulty filling more than a couple of pages! this book reads as though it is geared toward 3rd graders, and deals with concepts that should be 'enlightening' to about the same age group. i'm not trying to insult anyone, but i'm inclined to believe that those who feel they are born anew upon completion of these novelettes are the same people who order from infommercials, and are genuinely dissapointed when the product is bad.
Rating:
Summary: a great book. go read it.
Review: this is really a great book, and it will open you to a perspective you never considered before. i highly suggest you go out and buy and read this book, it is incredible. you will be changed.
Rating:
Summary: The bible revised.
Review: Although a bit too idealistic, this book does present a wonderful model for the way humans should live. With early man's development of agriculture, the human race divided into two different groups of people: those who live by the hands of gods and those who attempt to live as gods themselves. This book draws interesting comparisons between these two and illustrates how the human race has damaged the earth and all its other forms of life. I highly recommend it for those "with an earnest desire to save the world."
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the attention it is getting.
Review: When I was first given the book, I've heard about all the spritual rap and how it changes people's life, I was excited. But what a disappointment it was. The nameless student is annoying in that he gives me the impression that he does not even try to think. Ishmael just gives some over-generalization of human nature, then the student is eager to agree. The story line is thin and Ishmael keeps repeating things as if the readers have no memory or that repeating a statement makes it more true. He assmes all the readers are idiots, and just plain out TELL them what they ought to think. I resent that. The student should have provided more counter-arugument. I have many questions to ask but feel left out because the student is too dumb to ask them.
Rating:
Summary: A book which really changes the reader
Review: Ishmael is one of the best, if not the best book I have ever read. I know that I will fail to describe the great impact it had on me, but I know one thing for sure, It's a must read. Quinn does an excellent job of both challenging and stimulating the intellect. This is one book you truly get something out of. From Quinn's views of Genesis, the Agricultural Revolution, the environmental destruction all the "Taker" are causing, and the human cultural myth, they tell a story of how only the "Leavers" truly know how to live.Ishmael describes how things came to be this way and by doing so contradicts every thing Mother Culture has told the Takers. "Mother Culture, whose voice has been in your ear since the day of your birth, has given you an explanation of how things came to be this way, and it is terribly wrong." This is what Ishmael describes and uses to explain how the Takers can justify taking over the world and destroying everything in its path. By doing this the Takers have lead evolution into a dead end. I know that this is a fictitious work of literature but all the points Ishmael makes throughout are very valid ones. The ideas brought forth by Quinn challenge us to rethink everything we've ever held dear, but most importantly, they are ideas that could save us. Quinn's views are almost prophetic. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an open mind and an "earnest desire to save the world." Remember, "Any species that exempts itself from the rules of competition ends up destroying the community in order to support its own expansion." Don't let it happen to us.
Rating:
Summary: A Thoughtful Presentation of the "Big Problem" with culture
Review: I was given the book Ishmael (at age 54) by a thoughtful student, whom I taught in an industrial training course. Since I taught the course miles away from my home, and he was in his home, the student and I had spent several evenings discussing all kinds of technological impact on society. He is an engineer and I am a computer trainer. I have read a number of Neal Postman's books, and recommended some of them to my friend. I have always felt that if someone is interested in Technology, then Postman's Technopoly is a must read. Well, my student recommended just one book for me to read. In fact, the last time we saw each other, he gave me his personal copy of Ishmael to read. I told him that I would return Ishmael with my personal copy of Technopoly. My first take on Ishmael is that it is a profound book. When Ishmael told us about how the guerrila family was like a hand and individual guerillas were like connected fingers, I just knew that Quinn was going to have some real insights. Then when diversity of population types was discussed, I realized that this short discussion, even though not original, was right to the point. In the end, Ishmael has been a profound read for me. It has given me a number of new images to consider, new understandings on many cultural events and movements that have always repulsed me. I highly recommend this book. It is not a novel, and should only be read and to be reflected on. Those thoughtful readers out there will like Ishmael. Those who spend their time reading Romance novels and the like will not like Ishmael. Ishmael will not go away during an afternoon nap, for even after such a nap, the problems Ishmael discusses will be right there facing us again and again. Thanks, Daniel Quinn for your hard work.
Rating:
Summary: PROFOUNDLY SIGNIFICANT LITERARY WORK OF OUR TIMES!
Review: I can only say this. You could go on with your life pretending that every thing is fine or you could read Ishmael. This book can probably impart to you the most vital and profoundly important message of our times and leave you breathless and wanting to do some thing right away. This has happened to me and the book has strangely vetted many unspoken musings of mine and left me simply flabbergasted. I have seen pretty much the same results in those who read it on my recommendations. The book is simply life altering in that it gets to the root of all the maladies that beset the human condition today and leaves you gasping. I believe it is for every one who reads to come up with the next steps to try and nibble away at the grotesque monster that threatens to swiftly propel us to our extinction.
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