I hated this book.

I know there are a lot of Tolle fans who follow me, and for you I tried to enjoy this. I didn’t finish reading it years ago and now I remember why.

I’ve read a few Tolle books and overall I agree with him. Not only is he correct, in my opinion, but this subject is also very important for us as individuals and as a society. The subject has value but I just can’t stand this delivery.

I’m pretty sure my problem is with Tolle himself. I know that’s not good as a reviewer, but I’m being honest. Normally I don’t care if an author is a criminal or a Scientologist - if the work has value then I don’t really care about the author. But Tolle has always rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t like the way he speaks or looks and I feel like he talks AT people rather than to or with them.

I could be completely wrong, but I feel a holier-than-thou condescension from him. Funnily he would probably blame this on my ego and lack of acceptance of “what is”, but my personal dislike of him also cuts into his theory. Can we be enlightened and still experience emotions that are said (by Tolle) to only be part of the ego? I don’t know. Maybe I’m unenlightened. Maybe Tolle really IS too black and white with this theory.

I would have liked to see a more balanced theory. I don’t know what is missing but that should be the authors' job to figure out. I feel like this book would have made a great SECTION in a more nuanced book.

I also hated that the book is mostly in the form of Q&A, with softball questions to set up Tolle’s monologue. I would have appreciated more of an engaging narrative. Q&A is fantastic, AFTER the theory has been presented.

I also hated the MANY marks where the author tells me to pause and reflect. I don’t want my food to tell me how to eat it or my book to tell me how to read it.

I’m open to a lot of new age concepts. I’m down with zen and mindfulness and all of that. But this is probably my least favorite book about enlightenment.