My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Review: Buddha, the Dhammapada, and The Gateless Gate

Buddha, the Dhammapada, and The Gateless Gate Buddha, the Dhammapada, and The Gateless Gate by Joseph Lumpkin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Performance: ***
Story: ***

A Decent Introduction

Keep in mind, this is a religious text … not exactly edge of your seat drama.

A basic treatment of one of the founding documents of buddhist tradition. While I appreciated the ability to listen instead of try to read this text, I just admit to being at a disadvantage with respect to full comprehension being more at home in western religious traditions. This are the somewhat limited commentary provided less effective, so if you are looking for a more detailed understanding I was recommend finding something with considerably more commentary; however, for my purposes, it was a decent start on a text I have always wanted to read.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheDhammapada #FreeAudiobookCodes

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.