The Inner Self: The Joy of Discovering Who We Really Are

by Hugh Mackay

'How can I get in touch with this real self, underlying all my surface behaviour? How can I become myself?' Carl Rogers, US psychotherapist The Inner Self is a book about the ways we hide from the truth about ourselves and the psychological freedom we enjoy when we finally face that most searching question of 'Who am I, really?'Hugh Mackay explores our 'top 20' hiding places - from addiction to materialism, nostalgia to victimhood. He explains how it is our fear of love's demands that drive us into hiding. He argues that love is our highest ideal, the richest source of life's meaning and purpose, and the key to our emotional security, personal serenity and confidence.Yet Mackay exposes the great paradox of human nature, that while love brings out our best, we don't always want our best brought forward.Powerfully written and drawing on a lifetime of research, The Inner Self is a work of extraordinary insight by one of Australia's most respected psychologists.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Audiobook, Spirituality, Mental Health

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2020

About the author

Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and novelist who has made a lifelong study of the attitudes and behaviour of Australians. He is the author of twelve books, including five bestsellers. The second edition of his latest non-fiction book, Advance Australia…Where? was published in September 2008, and his fifth novel, Ways of Escape was published in May 2009.

He is a fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and received the University of Sydney’s 2004 Alumni Award for community service. In recognition of his pioneering work in social research, Hugh has been awarded honorary doctorates by Charles Sturt, Macquarie and NSW universities.

He is a former deputy chairman of the Australia Council, a former chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, and was the inaugural chairman of the ACT government’s Community Inclusion Board. He was a newspaper columnist for almost 30 years and now writes occasionally for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The West Australian. He is a frequent guest on ABC radio.

- Biography from Hugh Mackay's website

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is basically an epic therapy sesh that I highly recommend to EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE WORLD. Literally everyone. If you don't appreciate it, you're proving its point. In which case you need to read it again.

I thought this book would provide some interesting insight into how to get to know who I am deep down. I thought there would be some philosophical suggestions about the nature of the soul and how we can all learn more about ourselves through being more loving, compassionate people.

Both true.

What I did not expect, however, was the emotional rollercoaster this book took me on.

I related to every single thing this book said. If not personally, then by identifying it in others. See, this book talks about all the ways we hide from who we really are. Here's the list he works through:

-Addiction
-Ambition
-Anxiety
-Arrogance
-Busyness
-Complacency/Certainty
-Fantasy
-Fatalism
-'Forgetting'
-Guilt and Shame
-Happiness (pursuit of)
-Information Technology
-Masks and Labels
-Materialism
-Nostalgia
-Perfectionism
-Projection
-Religion and Science
-Victimhood
-Work

If any of these words strikes a chord in you you're going to have some work to do, my friend. And that's just the Top 20.

Honestly, so many of these topics were so revealing I had to put the book down and just sit in the feelings it stirred up. It wasn't fun at all, but it was extremely cathartic - like that sense of refreshment you get after a good cry. Only, through pressing on with the book, I know I only scratched the surface. This book has left me with a lot of homework.

It brilliantly utilises personal stories to demonstrate examples but the way it was written had my mind easily drifting to examples from my own life anyway. It was rather confronting at times but I found the more difficult something was for me, the more it highlighted that it's an area of my life that clearly needs work. The case studies demonstrate that you are not alone - that the way we might be hiding may be detrimental, but it's not uncommon. It grounds ideas in reality, but it also gives hope that these things can be overcome if we choose to put the effort in.

It's definitely going to rub some people the wrong way, but those will be the people in denial - for example, the person who reads the bit about busyness and decides this book is full of crap because they're not hiding from anything, they're just genuinely busy ALL THE TIME. (You're lying to yourself, my busy friend.) Hopefully these people are the minority, and they find their way back to its truths eventually.

It is my hope that people will read this with an open mind and embrace the journey it takes them on, learning more about themselves along the way. I certainly feel that there's more of myself I need to get to know properly.

Honestly, this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time.

The majority of the book involves confronting some hard truths, but it ends with hope. The book concludes with chapters on how to do the work, and resources available. I found that really important, and I'm grateful for it. Without finishing the book, I'd have just been adrift in a turmultuous sea of emotions. Instead, I have a better sense of what I can do to begin the process of finding my Inner Self.

I'll be recommending this to everyone I meet, and I anticipate returning to it regularly. I think I'd even go so far as to say it is the Best Book of 2020. Absolutely life-changing - and I'm not one for meaningless platitudes.

Read it, please.

With thanks to Macmillan for a copy

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Australian Hugh Mackay is a psychologist, social researcher and bestselling author, and is known for studying attitudes and behaviour. In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the community for this work, and I see him pop up on TV from time to time.

In this book, The Inner Self - The Joy of Discovering Who We Really Are, Mackay outlines our top 20 hiding places where we hide from the truth about ourselves. An interesting concept, these hiding places can include busyness, victimhood, nostalgia, anxiety, perfectionism and work, just to name a few.

Mackay provides case studies to throw light on each of the hiding places, and I found them insightful and sometimes quite funny. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on perfectionism and the case study of Helen dealing with her husband George's pedantry. Throughout the book, I was able to recognise some of these 20 hiding places in the traits of people I know, and of course, within myself, which is the whole point.

Mackay has a great way of speaking and I enjoyed listening to him reading The Inner Self on audiobook. Each chapter can be enjoyed independently of the others, but listening to this over a long period as my reviewing schedule picked up, no doubt diminished the overall impact of the book for me.

I do miss listening to Mackay's pearls of wisdom and I'm sure I'll be seeking out another of his books on audio before too long

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brb busy self-reflecting and trying not to project (but learning from when I do)

[mish · Rating 3 out of 5]

“‘The deepest form of despair is to choose to be another than oneself’”

I found this to be an interesting read. There was nothing here that was revolutionary or totally new, but I’m starting to think that this genre isn’t about revolutionary epiphanies, but more so about the gradual understanding of things that you perhaps already knew, but needed confirmation, or that extra push, to really start actioning.

So from that perspective, despite it feeling a bit reductive and repetitive at times, I found this to be a good, light overview of some areas of our lives we tend to be less than eager to address. The Australian lens made this a very relevant read, especially in light of the outcome of the recent Voice referendum - this book not only calls out the facades that individuals hide behind, but is also applicable on a larger scale; nations are not exempt from this tendency to not confront pertinent issues head on.

Many quotes that resonated with me were direct quotes from other sources that I felt could have been integrated better in the body of the text, and the interjection of other narratives did make for a confusing read at first, but I still found it to be a pleasant read overall.

***

What is this thing called the self?
“To respect the self, we must first be in touch with the self we truly are. Otherwise, we may fall victim to that rather fatuous substitute, self-esteem, which is more about thinking we’re terrific (despite inevitable evidence to the contrary) rather than experiencing the quiet confidence of knowing we are being true to ourselves”
“This is the ultimate paradox of selfhood; when we get to the core of who we are, we find that, just like everyone else, our essence is love”

Why we hide from ourselves
“‘Live simply so others may live’”
“…the inward journey may well be painful, but isn’t it the universal human experience that painful experiences often produce the most beneficial outcomes?’
“‘Between the idea/ And the reality/ Between the motion/ And the act/ Falls the shadow’”
“…if we were to go through life avoiding legitimate conflict and confrontation in the interest of keeping the peace, what kind of peace would we be keeping?”

Addiction
“The sheer amount of time now being routinely expended on casual online activity robs us of much of the time we might otherwise spend in useful self-reflections - not to mention face-to-face social interaction.”

Ambition
“Am I ambitious for myself, or for the people who will be affected by the realisation of this ambition? Is this ambition just another hiding place, distracting me from an encounter with the loving essence of my being, or is it an expression of that essence?”

Anxiety
“anxiety is not simply a moment within the stream of life, rather it is a fundamental way in which we feel ourselves to exist”

Busyness
“…meditation and abstraction as antidotes to the destructive effects of being permanently distracted. (By ‘abstraction’ she means those broader reflections that take us beyond specific moments or events.) She has observed that meditation produces ‘lovely chemicals’ that foster feelings of worth and belonging, while abstraction ‘allows a quiet mind to inwardly reflect, process and sit with ourselves until we become accepting of who we are’.”
“‘Where is the Life we have lost in living?’ Are we, perhaps, sacrificing too much of the quality of our life - even risking our own integrity - by going too hard at the living?”

Fatalism
“Had they chosen not to hide from themselves in their surrender to fatalism, they might have avoided the damaging emotional fallout that followed.”

Forgetting
“To become your authentic self means abandoning the comfort of the deception disguised as ‘forgetting’ and accepting that the damage you have inflicted on others by your misrepresentation is as nothing compared to the likely damage being inflicted on yourself.”

Guilt and shame
“Morality is always about our interactions with other people: it is a system or code we develop directly out of our awareness of ourselves as social beings.”
“Some politicians, historians and commentators have argued that we should feel no guilt over deeds performed by previous generations. True. But the shame of knowing about those deeds and not having done nearly enough to redress the wrongs of the past will stay with us until we find a pathway to enduring reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to use jingoistic nationalism as a hiding place.”

Information technology
“‘Man is a creature who makes a picture of himself, and then comes to resemble the picture’.”
“‘Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?/ Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?’”

Masks and labels
“Didion had come to regard our masks and labels as tricks that may work on others but that ‘count for nothing in that very well-lit back alley where one keeps assignations with oneself’.”

Materialism
“We take on the role of consumers with unflagging eagerness, while insisting that ‘things’ are unimportant to us. We are flattered by advertising, seduced by clever merchandising in beautiful retails stores, or by online imagery, while proclaiming that commercial propaganda only influences people who are more gullible than we are.”

Perfectionism
“’Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.”

Victimhood
“‘I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become.”
“Such people need all the sympathy, all the kindness, all the understanding and all the practical support we can muster on their behalf. But when they elect to play the victim role, that diminishes their capacity for self-reflection, as well as our capacity for sympathy: after all, if someone is wallowing in self-pity, it’s a bit hard to muster much additional pity to add to the existing swamp.”
“We sometimes adopt victimhood as a hiding place even when we are the victims of our own problems.”
“Sometimes victimhood poses as martyrdom - not in the classical sense of a person dying for a cause they believe in, but in the more mundane, everyday sense of a person who has fallen into the trap of self-pity because of the demands being made on them.”
“To perceive ourselves as having been ‘martyred’ or victimised by our responsibilities to others is to have become deaf to the whispers of the soul.”

“There are many other hiding places. In aggressive individualism we hide from the truth of our dependency on each other. In the emotional profligacy of lust we hide from the risky vulnerabilities of love. In our determination to put a ‘positive spin’ on everything, we may be hiding from a confrontation with our authentic feelings. In relentless socialising we distract ourselves from the inner life. In constant travel we may be learning useful lessons about who we are compared with who they are, but we might also be hiding from ourselves behind the facade of ‘interesting places’, using the distraction of a constantly changing sense to avoid being trapped in one of those Didionesque well-lit back alleys.”

Soul-searching
“We know the brain and central nervous system play a big part in all human experience, but our sense of the spiritual, the numinous, the essential, the inner, seems to call for more poetic, less rational, less objective, more metaphorical language.”

Out of hiding
“…we are being conditioned to accept deception as a rather ho-hum fact of life; to treat ‘image’ as more significant than substance; to present ourselves, especially in social media, as if we are brands in need of promotion.”
“Motives are rarely simple or straightforward, because the various facets of our character create inevitable tension within us, as do our competing desires - like the fundamentally incompatible desires for control and for love.”
“Sometimes the best way to diverge our malevolence - whether in the form of jealousy, rage, resentment or despair - is to take a very longer effective walk. Denial is the real problem.”
“‘This above all - to thine own self be true,/ And it must follow, as the night the day,/ Thou canst not then be false to any man.’”
“Love, in all its manifestations, is the richest source of life’s meaning and purpose.”
“‘Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within’.”

[Carmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not eye opening but interesting nonetheless. I’m a fan of Hugh Mackey - a well known Australian social researcher and psychologist. It was easy to digest and lots of valid points providing food for thought but just not engrossing or convincing enough for me to highly recommend.

[Nick Lucarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern 2020s self help musings from a wise nut that has lived through and is not afraid to comment on Australia's growing mental health crisis. Cuts through the crap and helps readers to do the same with the pretentiousness, triviality and vapidness of day to day life. McKay lays out the 20 areas or facets of life we tend to gravitate towards to seek superficial fulfilment or hide our deeper insecurities. Definitely something in here for everyone, if not to help recognise where others are struggling / masking their inner demons, then certainly to uncover your own

[Charlotte Wirtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great surface level dip into how we obfuscate our true self. Still working on hiding in perfectionism and overwork hehe

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found Hugh Mackey's views here to be sensible and pragmatic. But not anything new for me.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book absolutely fascinating and I'm almost ashamed to say I hadn't heard of nor read anything by Hugh Mackay before. It's a shame that one of Australia's most eminent psychologists (a foundation member of the Australian Psychological Association no less) isn't more widely known in lay circles. Like many masters in their fields Mackay describes relevant psychological terms and theories with ease and the book overall was one that I found very easy to understand and to relate to. The concept is a little darker than the cover suggests with the bulk of the book actually devoted to discovering an exploring the various ways that we 'hide' from our real selves and refuse to confront that all humans, no matter how altruistic, are a mixture of light and dark. A worthwhile premise to indicate that the more we ignore the parts of ourselves that we're not proud of and don't like, the more that 'hiding' who we really are damages our lives and our relationships. It was a fascinating read and delves into (albeit briefly) many relevant topics and issues today including addiction and anxiety as well as the concept of victimhood and it's increasing role today. Definitely worth a read for anyone even remotely interested in lay psychology and/or into confronting or acknowledging that with every human psyche comes the good and the bad.

[Helen - Great Reads & Tea Leaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

‘Happiness seems such a natural goal of life; a no-brainer. Shouldn’t we all try to maximise our happiness?'

I first read a Hugh MacKay book in the 1990s and it has stayed with me over these many years. So I was thrilled to take a look into his new book, The Inner Self: The joy of discovering who we really are. Hugh is one of Australia’s most well respected social psychologists and bestselling authors. In this volume he takes all his years of social research to highlight how we are ‘hiding’ from our real self.

‘Spending too long in hiding increases the risk that we will live a half-life of inauthenticity, never reaching our full potential, and wondering why we feel permanently unsatisfied.’

Hugh delivers a rich explanation of how in presenting what is essentially our socially constructed identity, we hide from our real self. It is a fascinating investigation into the contrast between our inner self versus our social self. The masks we all put on to face everything from our fears to our everyday obligations.

'Think of all those things as masks we wear – the faces we need to put on to play our various roles. If you’re a partner and a parent, then you know that you must act differently in those different roles. But you’re still you.'

Hugh presents research on what he considers to be our ‘Top 20’ hiding places including things such as addictions, busyness, social media and materialism just to name a few. What he wants his readers to question is, ‘Who am I?’ If you feel that how you are perceived is not the real you, then he hopes that this book will help shed some light on the discrepancy - an insight into the problems associated with pretending to be someone you are not.

‘Almost always, the sense of a gap between who I am and who I want to be is a response to an opening up of our inner sense of self.’

Hugh wants his readers to appreciate the great relief to be had from reaching an understanding that there is real freedom to be gained from coming out of these hiding places and unveiling your authentic self. Many will appreciate that we need to listen more to our inner voice and less to the image we more often than not project to the world. Live the life we all really want, moving away from the life we are currently hiding behind.

‘Nature has its seasons, and so does every life. To be attentive and responsive to them all is healthier than to yearn for one rather than another.’

This book is easy to read with little jargon and loads of real life examples for people to relate to. After all these years and all the many books Hugh has written in between, I am happy to have reflected upon some real gems of advice that are to be found within these pages.

‘Wouldn’t you rather confront the things you don’t like about yourself, or that don’t ring true for you, and do some work on them? The alternative is to live in a permanently defensive state of mind.’






This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

[Ruth Hosford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting indeed. It certainly inspired me into some true introspection of my past and present behaviour. It gives a very easily read view of the 20 top hiding places we use for not revealing who we truly are, and the reassuring view that although we all have our dark sides, if we practise compassion in our daily lives, our world will become a better place to reveal our true selves. There were many times when I wished I owned the book as I would have reached for a highlighter to remind me of the many quotations that really resonated with me.

[Victoria Rosario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book, was able to learn about the ways that I hide from myself and liked the fact that it didn't provide solutions of how to....like other books do which never work because growth is not a one size fits all but a personal intimate experience with oneself.
I have read a number of Hughs books but this is definitely my favourite.
A must read

[Nicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and it was relevant to me at the moment.

[Susan Bray DeLong · Rating 4 out of 5]

No doubt about Hugh Mackay’s ability to pump out book after book in swift succession. This one is recommended by everyone who reads it. It is an uncomfortable read as you will find yourself stopping after each chapter, to question who you really are and if you should pull your socks up to become a better person.

After reading it on and off over the course of a week, I decided to leave myself alone. At my age it is too late to become more perfect and anyway, I am most unlikely to change even if I promised to in a fit of eagerness.

Instead, I boxed two of Hugh’s latest books up and sent them off to a wonderful accommodation facility in Orange, NSW AUSTRALIA, devoted to provide comforting support to patients undergoing cancer treatment. My own husband had just spent eight days there, being treated with radiation for stage four lung cancer. He told me that other patients had mentioned that their stay at the Lodge was made more bearable because of the small library. As it was, my big box of books had to undergo two weeks of Covid quarantine before being made available to eager readers.

So thanks Hugh Mackay and Pan Macmillan. Your books will be widely read by people who are in need of examining their life priorities.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really read books. I struggle with concentration, and have done so since I was in infants classes. I’m now in my mid 60s and my psychologist says that she wonders why my concentration issues were not detected and dealt with in my school years. But that’s another story.

However, I saw this book on the list of audiobooks available from my local library and I thought it would be interesting. As another reviewer wrote, I was expecting some things from the book, but in my case maybe because of the author’s reputation for social research.

I wasn’t expecting the uncomfortable truths that I was presented with on practically every ‘page’.

The library’s loan period is 3 weeks and I fully expected to finish this relatively short book in that time. But, again as a previous reviewer wrote, I had to put the book down (stop listening) for periods just to let things sink in.

I can think of several people who really need to read this book. But they won’t. They’re okay, just ask them. But they don’t know anything about the train wreck they leave behind them because they’re so busy steamrolling anyone and anything in their way.

[F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugh Mackay does something that not a lot of self-help authors do: Rather than providing a simple solution *coughLetThemcough*, he thoroughly analyses a whole range of issues through many decades of social research and reveals the nuances. His writing is kind and uplifting, and I like that the main crux of the argument, though simple, is all about getting to know the inner self, rather than hiding behind various other distractions. At the same time, he doesn't gloss over the fact that relationships and life are complicated. It is also refreshing to see a departure from a very individualist "me me me" approach from mainstream authors of the same genre. Rather, Mackay encourages more compassion and a deeper understanding for others. After all, how can we discover who we are if we don't even attempt to understand others?

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about our hiding places.
The places we consciously but often unconsciously go to avoid our real selves.
It is a solid read which includes practical anecdotes of these hiding places.
Some of these hiding places are obvious crutches used over a lifetime (work, addiction).
But others are more insidious (fantasy, busyness, nostalgia, victimhood, projection).
A key word not mentioned here is balance, as there will be times when one seeks refuge.
It is when seeking refuge becomes the be all and end all of your existence that there is a problem.
I was fortunate to buy this book, so will be rereading particular chapters that raised some red flags for me.

[John Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author enunciates twenty ways in which people may hide away from reality. These include ambition, busyness, victimhood and others, with case examples for each. In order for the reader to help themselves, they need to recognise their traits in these segments. There isn't much advice on how to change, though. That boils down to one page of vague suggestions in an appendix. The other aspect that disappointed me is that there is very little about the causes of these personality types.
The book was worth reading to gain an overview of these issues, but other than that is wasn't that helpful for me.
Rating 3.0.

[Annette Chidzey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes reading a book and judging your reaction to it is as much about what you bring to that experience as to what the author is sharing in that writing.
This is the case with the latest McKay offering. I find myself contemplating my current situation and in doing so this book seems to speak to me in a way that might not otherwise be the case.
Literally food for thought and that is indeed one of the great riches associated with reading. You enter a world that speaks to you in your current situation when for another it remains just a detached read

[Mark Parry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with lots of interesting, engaging and enlightening ideas. However, the title might be more accurate as “(Obstacles to engaging with) The Inner Self” since this seems to be the consistent focus and scope of the book. (Ie not the inner life itself, but ways that people avoid, deny and/or otherwise fail to acknowledge or engage with their inner selves. There are quite a few spot on, laugh out loud moments. I listened to the audio book version, so enjoyable to listen to the nuances of verbal language.

[Kathy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book at Adelaide Writers Week last year and now I wish I’d been able attend to hear Hugh McKay talk. A n easy to read book that makes you reflect on your behaviors. It is easy to see faults in others but I was forced to reflect on my ‘hiding places’. The anecdotes clarified the issues mentioned. I felt that many of the top 20 hiding places aren’t all bad in moderation but when they become the driving force in your life that becomes the problem. I don’t know a lot about psychology but know enough to know humans are very complex animals.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy. Mind blown.
In between his analysis of the philosophy and the concept, he has small moments from the lives of people, teflon trevor and others. Almost like an illustration of the concept. Neat, if the philosophy seems all too esoteric.
I’m not sure that I agree with religion and science being in the same category, but I get what he’s arguing.
Super interesting.
4 stars

[Ita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to this book but when I followed it up with watching the author talk I felt like I had missed something. He goes into great detail of all the things where we hide from our true self but not deep enough into how we can actually discover who we really are. In the author talk he also discusses his latest novel 'The question of love' which I'm looking forward to reading next.

[Dragan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eh pop psychology books can be a hit or miss. This book was definitely a miss for me. It’s extremely repetitive how’s its structured. The anecdotes are so boring to read, some wisdom sprinkled here and there. Is this self help? No. Is this pop psychology? In the most watered down way, yes and it’s so surface level with everything.

[Josh Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

In summary, we avoid painful stuff about ourselves. Interesting to think about the role our “social identity” can serve as a type of avoidance. At the end the author admits he doesn’t really know what the self or soul is. Oh and the answer to all this is love! Felt a bit like grandpa showing off his book collection.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook read by the author. A thorough and enlightening analysis of all the ways we can distract ourselves from really thinking about whether we are doing the best we can to show compassion to our fellow humans. Highly recommended.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed this book. I think he could have gone in even deeper but I really enjoyed the discussion he created for me and the questions I then had to ask about my own distraction from, or exploration of, my inner self.

[ML O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of many wise words as the author explores 20' hiding places people go to hide from their true, inner self. Of mist interest were the chapters dedicated to the places people hide: victimhood, anxiety, the pursuit of happiness, busyness and addictions.

[Giovanna Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read in COVID times when life priorities have changed for many. It crystallised my path, I didn’t relate to religious references (personal issue), but a good reminder of what - and who - is really important in life.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content of this book is ok nothing amazing but some interesting philosophical insights along the way. The gentleman's voice is very sophoriphic so do be careful if you're both listening to this book and driving at the same time.