Review Detail

In view of the tumultuous times we live in, you would think that a Manual for Living would be just the ticket. Finally, life gets its missing manual. I mean, what could be better?

I bought into the concept right away. And if anyone ever needed a manual for life, that would be me right now. So I picked up the book and immediately sat down to read Chapter One: DEATH.

Oops.

That's right; the Manual for Living: A User's Guide to the Meaning of Life starts out with a chapter about death. This is your first clue that something is amiss.

But if you're like me, you are very stubborn when you want to like a book. So you keep reading in the hopes that it will get better.

It doesn't.

The problem here is not that David Chernoff doesn't have worthwhile things to say; he does. It's just that every bit of wisdom he espouses is written in declarative sentences without any analogies. None.

Imagine the Bible without any stories. Think about how flat that would be. If Jesus and the Buddha taught like this, no one would have ever heard of them.

The great teachers knew that you cant just tell people things like "We must have clarity within our mind to focus on the positive" without telling them just exactly how to go about making it happen. Isn't that what manuals are for?