Helpful Score: 2
An inspiring story about individualism and finding your own way in the crowd.
An awesome tale of perseverance in finding, appreciating & embracing true self.
"Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again," writes author Richard Bach in this allegory about a unique bird named Jonathan Livingston Seagull. "For most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight." Flight is indeed the metaphor that makes the story soar. Ultimately this is a fable about the importance of seeking a higher purpose in life, even if your flock, tribe, or neighborhood finds your ambition threatening. (At one point our beloved gull is even banished from his flock.) By not compromising his higher vision, Jonathan gets the ultimate payoff: transcendence. Ultimately, he learns the meaning of love and kindness. The dreamy seagull photographs by Russell Munson provide just the right illustrations--although the overall packaging does seem a bit dated (keep in mind that it was first published in 1970)
I read it a long time ago, but re-reading the last few pages just now, the general theme is mind over matter; you can be anything you think you can, anything you give yourself the power to be; we haven't begun to tap the possibilities of what we can become.
As great as ever!
This book actually has an ISBN (0-02-504540-4) but apparently Jonathan and I are the only two who know about it because it isn't recognized by anyone else.
This incredible book is one I read each and every summer -- it is good for my soul! Jonathan can be found in all of us; his joy, his despair, his success and his failure, his acceptance and his shunning -- through it all he senses a higher power we all will find in ourselves and in our faith.
This is a book I will always request from PBS -- for it is a privilege to share with others this fabulous story. If you haven't taken the time to read this book, please do yourself a favor and make time for it today.
This is a book I will always request from PBS -- for it is a privilege to share with others this fabulous story. If you haven't taken the time to read this book, please do yourself a favor and make time for it today.
This is my favorite booke of all time. It teaches patience, learning and also shows why you can't always follow the croud. I have three copies of this book so figured I could trade one. Fascinating book everbody should own a copy or at least have read it.
I didn't love this book as much as I thought I would, but it was still an enlightening and thought-provoking read.
It was okay... a brief read with a few things to think about.
As always I loved reading this book , again! I doubt I will ever tire of reading it. It helps me to reaffirm my view of life!
The extraordinary experience shared by over a million hardcover readers!
"Richard Bach with this book does two things. He gives me flight. He makes me young."
--Ray Bradbury
"Richard Bach with this book does two things. He gives me flight. He makes me young."
--Ray Bradbury
A classic read for everyone's library.
Very short read. I don't feel it's one of Bach's best, but definitely worth reading.
A classic
This is a very short story, a light read, the number of pages greatly increased by pictures of birds I'll give you; but given all of that, there is a great meaning, an very interesting view of our world behind it all. I think everyone should read this book; broaden all of our horizons, our senses of reality and the world a little bit.
This is probably my favorite book.
This is probably my favorite book.
interesting read
My whole family loved this book. It is a good one to read out loud.
Calming and inspiring
Classic.
Classic Jesus parable. A good one to read aloud.
Great!!
excellent short story, insightful
From the dust jacket: "People who make their own rules when they know they're right...people who get a special pleasure out of doing something well (even if only for themselves)...people who know there's more to this whole living thing than meets the eye: they'll be with Jonathan Seagull all the way. Others may simply escape into a delightful adventure about freedom and flight. Either way it's an uncommon treat."
May be read as a simple children's story or as an allegory or as a story about Jesus or as a story about transcendence. Short, inspiring with wonderful photographs of gulls in flight, done by Russell Munson.
May be read as a simple children's story or as an allegory or as a story about Jesus or as a story about transcendence. Short, inspiring with wonderful photographs of gulls in flight, done by Russell Munson.
Read it as the Neil Diamond album of the same name plays in the background...and be inspired!
