Rating: 
Summary: If you're reading this line, read this classic!
Review: A delightful journey through Eastern and Western philosophy and mysticism fashioned by the master teacher and acclaimed 'human potential' researcher/philosopher/writer from Esalen. The fine writing combines the simplicity and depth of Steinbeck with more than touch of J.P. Donleavy's raucus good humor. Don't miss the opportunity to laugh at yourself and the human condition with Murphy's wonderful characters. You may want to improve your golf score and succeed by reading this book, but this is a work with the potential to transform your perspective on life. Murphy delivers this jewel with an elegance and wit worthy of the wonderful game he uses to convey his message. Treat yourself to a classic. Thank you Michael!
Rating:
Summary: excellent read and excellent on tape as well
Review: after having read golf in the kingdom twice i knew what to expect. what an excellent book to pick up anytime and read for inspiration in golf and life. tough to grasp the gaelic dialogue at first and has turned off a few friends whom i recommended it to but once you get used to this the book literally sings to you. you can almost smell the heather shivas describes growing on the hillsides. i decided i needed to listen to the tape read by mitchell ryan and was not disappointed. i have never been one to sit down and read a book all the way through but listening to the book read by ryan left me mesmerized. now i cant wait to start on murphy's follow-up(written some 25 years later)The Kingdom of Shivas Irons.
Rating: 
Summary: the Truth is simple, this book is not
Review: As a scratch golfer and a Christian, I was very disappointed with both of this acclaimed book's topics: golfing and spirituality. The first half of the book is fairly interesting, painting some of the joys and lows of golf in clear pictures. Murphy does a nice job describing the inner struggles inherent in all serious golfers, regardless of talent. The second half of the book, however, is a thinly veiled sales pitch for seemingly every convoluted spiritual theory ever invented by mankind. The whole spiritual sink is thrown in, and as such, it is muddy and depressing. Ease up on the whiskey, Shivas! Some quick advice: want to make a huge breakthrough with the spiritual/mental aspect of golf? Read "Golf is Not a Game of Perfect," by Dr. Bob Rotella, and practice. Want to read about the inner battles we all fight on the course, written so tangibly you can taste it? Read "A Good Walk Spoiled" by John Feinstein. Want to find the Truth and have a life changing spiritual awakening? Read the Bible (the Gospel of John first, Romans second, anything else next), and practice! Happy golfing, and happy reading! The Truth is simple, and It will set you free!
Rating: 
Summary: I rarely return a book for a refund...
Review: but this one just had to go. While this book offers tips on neither golf nor life it IS rife with stereotyping and lacking in continuity. The point of the book will elude you - guaranteed. The 'spiritual' ending makes you wonder why he didn't ask a real writer to suggest a suitable conclusion (and while he was in the area, a little editing was in order as well - this offering is in need of more than a little revision). At any rate, I read these reviews before I bought the book and failed to heed the sensible warnings posted herein. Do yourself a big favor, check this one out of the library BEFORE you buy. What a total waste of good paper.
Rating:
Summary: waste of time
Review: First of all, brothers and sisters, this is just a pack of lies, he made it all up, it's a work of fiction. I think the author even admitted it later. It was the fad when this thing was written for hippie-dippies like Murphy or Carlos Castaneda to do this kind of thing, hoodwink the public and sell a zillion books. It worked then and it works now. Don't be a sucker. Second of all, brothers and sisters, the Esalen institute drivel that Murphy and his ilk have been promoting for decades is transparently a load of hogwash. If you want real mysticism, read Krishnamurti or Gurdjieff. (And do be aware that this book only uses golf as a mouthpiece for outdated sixties-era pseudo-mystical junk.) Third of all, brothers and sisters, golf has nothing to do with spirituality. Golf is an excuse for potbellied old rich guys to pretend they are athletes, while destroying about a hundred acres of nature in the process, and then pumping the groundwater full of poisons to kill all the bugs and the weeds they don't like to see on their little golf courses -- which is what they think of "natural beauty". If an evil sport ever existed, golf is it. It ranks up there with feeding Christians to the lions. In other words, golf is a waste of time, this book is a waste of time, and you should find better things to do.
Rating:
Summary: Pure alchemy! Golden...A gift!
Review: Golf at its best bares us, shows us not who we think we are, but who we truly are. As we curse and delight in the game's cagey offerings of disappointment and intermittent reward, as we alternately buck and welcome its fabulous mystery and rolls, even the most reluctant of us cannot help but heed the ageless pull--we unwittingly fathom the game is alive, stirring our souls. Like no other work before or after, GOLF IN THE KINGDOM calls us to this recognition. From its epigram, "The game was invented a billion years ago--don't you remember?" on to the now-famed, "Let the nothingness into yer shots," we are beckoned to what we know. With grace and lyricism, Michael Murphy concocts a shimmering world in which golf can live, and like an alchemist--through the whimsical, wise, larger-than-life magical master Shivas Irons--creates the voice of the game itself. Some years ago this book drew me back to the game I love. As a golf coach, I've carried it as a talisman, recommended it to my students, and bought more than my share of copies for friends. Because Murphy's magic is infinite and simple. In his kingdom he lures us to fascination, moves us to believe in golf's--in life's--special powers, and so, ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible Book
Review: How does a high school level writer even get published. This is total junk.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I don't care how many times I read this book, I always walk away with something new. If you enjoy philosophy in a modern context without going to "new-age", this is a great book. I would also recommend Life of Pi.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I don't care how many times I read this book, I always walk away with something new. If you enjoy philosophy in a modern context without going to "new-age", this is a great book. I would also recommend Life of Pi.
Rating:
Summary: Seemed like it tried too hard
Review: I feel like I could read just about anything revolving around golf and I had heard a lot of good things about this book, so I entered with an open mind and just could not like it. There wer parts that I enjoyed, but it is important to be interested in the unusual things to enjoy this. If you are a fan of science fiction, or The Lord of the Rings or something a little off-beat spiritually, and you also like golf - then this may indeed be a very good book for you. In my opinion, the book tries too hard to put a serious discussion of the universal greatness of golf wrapped in a somewhat silly wrapper.
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