I think this book is tedious and the author's good ideas are buried in lots ...
580052
A book club of Muslim, Christian and Buddhist women chose this to read and I have not heard their responses yet but look forward to hearing what others think. I think this book is tedious and the author's good ideas are buried in lots of extraneous verbiage about himself and the situations he is describing often beleaguing the point of the need for dialogue. He spends about 1/3 of the book talking about the Crdoba Houst controversy, which I remember. While I think this suggestion probably arose out of good intention, I find it difficult to hear Patel talk about he great suffering of Muslims and then show so little understanding of the suffering of those whose loved ones and community died in the 9/11 terrorist attack, or in the ongoing aftermath of the illnesses many of those first responders still deal with. Then there is his assertion that Spain enjoyed 700 years of happy, contented and peaceful Muslim rule that was embodied in the art of Crdoba. At least three different waves of Muslim invaders from North Africa overwhelmed Christian Spain and while some Christians and Jews survived and continued to live there, they were heavily taxed and performed important functions, like banking, for the Muslims. Peace at the point of a sword is hardly happy co-existence. - I did not find his 3 keys to participating in a TV interview gratifying when number two is "never answer the question." I have seen this technique used and invariably find it annoying to disingenuous. - He makes a comment about thinking universities should offer degrees in interfaith and seems surprised when a State university president says "We don't discuss religion." Perhaps the concept of separation of church and state needs to be clarified for him. - There also seems to be a question about whether any minority group will every feel comfortable with the majority, as well as just how far a culture needs to bend itself to satisfy the demands of its minorities. And, I am definitely reminded at as of today in 2016 that there are few Muslim dominated countries that tolerate diversity, especially to the extent found in the US. In fact, I can't think of any. - I do appreciate that he is trying to create greater harmony through dialogue and I personally am committed to working with that in my community, and I think Muslim's have a long way to go to manifest that their religion is one of peace. We hear that said continually and then we hear about the bombings, and the molestations in Cologne and it makes those statements less trustworthy. - The promise of America gets stretched pretty far when pleuralism is thought to be "you have to accept us just as we are" or "we don't want to assimilate" or "this is our religion so you can't criticize it or judge it."
2860436
I had high hopes that this book would be an inspiration in my day-to-day life as an atheist.  Every so often the book shines  with pearls of true wisdom and affirmation, but most of the time the book is tedious and hard to get through.  Eric Maisel likes to repeat the same phrases OVER AND OVER. It's frankly ridiculous how much of this book is pointless padding, especially when it doesn't reach 200 pages.  I love the concept of a book about living a meaningful life without religion, but I'm sure there are better written books.  Don't bother with this one.
3332413
This book was inspired by a short story written by the author, which is included as the last chapter of the book.  The short story (or last chapter) is wonderful, but the rest of the book is tedious, boring and difficult reading.  I only got through 3 or 4 chapters, then gave up and abandoned the effort.
28287
This book is worth reading if one is interested in Sylvia Browne (which I am, and I have read most of her books), but Chris's book gets a bit tedious and boring with so much talk about his daughter. I'm sure she's a lovely child, but we all love our children and grandchildren, and this was too much about the little girl. I also felt Chris was trying to convince the reader and himself of his psychic ability and often told of how wonderful he is (maybe he was trying to be funny or something). His writing skills needs polishing, or perhaps he needs to find a good ghost writer. What does shine in the book is his love for his mother! Cynthia Briggs, Cookbook Author&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Pork-Chops-and-Applesauce-A-Collection-of-Recipes-and-Reflections/dp/1403381666/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Pork Chops and Applesauce: A Collection of Recipes and Reflections</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Sweet-Apple-Temptations/dp/0978993306/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Sweet Apple Temptations</a>
4808481
I expected to like this book and was very disappointed. He had enough content to write an article but decided to write a book. I like the idea about everybody being religious because they devote themselves to something, but he does not work through that idea very well. Too much irrelevant content that he does not tie to the topic. Long rambling stories without a connection to his points in the book.
4553385
I found several of the ideas in the book to be intruiging.  However, it was next to impossible to unearth these nuggets from the heaping debris of rhetoric.

I had a hard time believing that his book, filled with name-calling and childish rants, was written by someone with multiple advanced degrees.  Perhaps if I listened to his radio show I would know who "Rat Boy" or "Larry Seltzer" were off the bat, but it took me a while to figure it out.  Rather than letting his facts speak for themselves, he chooses to call people childish names.  Rather than saying "Johnnie Walker Lindh is a traitor," he basically says "Rat Boy smells like poop."  Its sad.

While he claims to be discussing "facts," the book is devoid of any referencing or foot/endnotes.  Which is a shame because some of his "stories," if true, would be worth reading additional information on.  Unfortunately, I have to, as Mr. Savage suggests, take his word for it.
2757729
I wanted to read this book because it was so highly recommended by James Pethokoukis.  It contains some profound thoughts and ideas, but it is hard to get to those because the narrative is so chocked full of the author's incessant, gratuitous, and distracting politically-correct syntax and stock liberal phrases.  I finally gave up, and put it down for good.  I think the author uses the word "liberal" in both the classical liberal sense and sometimes referring to the modern sort of political drivel that goes under that name, or now "progressive" since the word liberal has been so devalued. It's not easy to tell the difference and the author writes in style that doesn't help.
367570
Some good things in this book, but the author tried to do too much, especially at the end. I can't really recommend it.
4975004
I'll leave a summary of this book to others who have pointed out many of it's weaknesses, which I'll also pass over. There were two things that particularly made this a tedious read, though. First, the author's constant use of ten dollar words. Why say "sun burned" when you can say "sun burnished"? How many times do you really need to use the word "nimbus" in a 300 page book? I had the feeling the author had his thesaurus at his elbow and used it constantly. Secondly, the author has a tin ear for dialogue. Instead of sounding like a real teenager or drifter, the author's characters sound like a 45-year-old West Coast liberal's idea of how a teenager or drifter is supposed to sound. I realize the characters Ben meets on the road are more symbolic than literal, but they just never rang true.
2455087
I was pretty jazzed about reading this book. I really enjoy stories about people launching new challenges, learning as they go, mishaps and missteps with a comic bent. BUT, this book is tedious and boring. The primary voice (it's a husband/wife team) conveys the story in a pretentious tone. I mean, really? You met Isaac Asimov at a Mensa meeting? You read 1,000 books a year whilst also watching 8 hours of news/cultural programming a day and also do a full day's work? hoo boy. The wife works as an editor but obviously didn't feel comfortable editing her husband's work. The content might have been somewhat enjoyable if someone had worked on the tone, pace, and style of the writing. I only made it through 29% of the book before I threw in the towel. Proceed at your own risk -- definitely download a sample. Try it before you buy it.
1869568
I approached this book with relatively low expectations, deciding that I would try the ideas as long as they weren't complete nonsense. I have not finished reading this book, and I don't think that I can do so. I have no complaints concerning the passages that actually describe the techniques, but a dozen or so pages would have sufficed. Way too many pages are devoted to historical anecdotes. Numerous tangentially related, imprecise, sciency descriptions make it difficult to keep track of what the author is even talking about. Again and again, correlation is offered as causation. The experimental descriptions were a waste of page space; the lack of experimental details makes it impossible to come to any conclusion about the validity of the author's claims. I was particularly annoyed by the proliferation of hokey labels such as The "Surprise!" Effect and Velvety-Smooth Breathing. I had trouble keeping track of all the designer names. The book is overflowing with shallow soundbites and rambling metaphors, and I grew weary of searching through them for the actual techniques.

If you've ever listened to a pretentious moron who tried to sound smart and impress people, but messed up the details and somehow had a lot to say despite not really knowing what she was talking about, you'll have a good idea of what it's like to read this book. Reading the bulk of the book actually made me less inclined to try the techniques, because most of the text quite simply makes the authors look stupid.
798332
The author gets his points across but in a very boring manner.
2121426
While there are some good points made by the author, I feel like there are too many bad points made by the author. Not only that, but her ego shows throughout the book and she is very much in the school of one twue way and I have a low tolerance of people who preach that. If you're looking for a book that'll introduce you to the basics of BDSM, this is not it. I mean, she considers works of fiction as resources. I found that to be quite a joke as Story of O and the movie Secretary aren't exactly educational resources.
3575454
I tried to approach this book with an open mind. Page after page, I kept pushing foward...but I finally gave up.
Maybe I'll pick this book up again, when there aren't better books around to read and I've got time to  waste.
The idea for the book is good. I like fairy tales and fantasy.  However, the fact that Aurelia still believes that she's living in the past  by chapter 11 is simply too trying. It's both frusterating and dull when  she rushes about to find a father who died (maybe of natural causes) long,  long ago.
Perhaps it might be amusing to some, the confusion and the  misunderstandings that lead to Aurelia's continued belief that she is in  a.d. 800. However, I couldn't stand the fact that every problem she  perceives is, well, wrong and an illusion. It would have been so much nicer  had she realized that she'd woken up in the 20th century, and dealt with  all of the problems and mysteries from that point forward, from that  perception and  angle...rather than from a delusion.
For instance, she's  convinced that the hero, Baird, is actually the invading evil villain  Bard...who was attacking her home when the sleeping enchantment encased  her.
So she's thinking that her father, the king, has been captured and  tortured or killed...and that Baird, who she thinks is Bard, is  responsible.  Somehow, while a sleeping enchantment is obviously  make-believe, the terrible and often silly gordian tangles of logic that  Claire indulges to keep Aurelia thinking she's in the past is simply way  over the top.
Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I gave up on this book too  soon. Maybe I'll pick it up someday and give it another try. In the  meantime, I'm going to spend my time on more worthwhile books.
1134555
Daniel Kahneman is genius but this book has a predictable flaw of a volume written by an academic (not a writer), with one author (Amos) already dead. It ends up as as a lengthy compendium of multiple tests and studies. The ideas drown under the paper weight of modern, tedious scholarship.
677994
I think there might be some very good ideas buried somewhere in this dense, pompous prose.  The book's writing style is very archaic and inaccessible for the average reader ... think academic audience here.  The editors didn't do Sheldrake any favors here by letting him run amok with his thesis project. Fine, if I had picked up this book in the University's book store ... but not mainstream Amazon.
3144050
I bought this book to read to my son and really it's long and tedious and I don't think we'll finish it. For one thing, it goes by the billions of years theory which we don't subscribe to since there really isn't evidence, just speculation. There is lots of good scientific information for someone who wants to know a lot on this subject but I don't think we'll remember most of it. I thought we were buying the edition with photos, which would have helped, but it wasn't. I think we'll try Answers In Genesis'&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Ocean-Book-Wonders-of-Creation/dp/B000C4SIUI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Ocean Book (Wonders of Creation)</a>&nbsp;which also has a study guide available and good, descriptive pictures.