Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach
List Price:
Our Price: $5.96
You Save: $6.03 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.65 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Richard BachPhotographer: Russell Munson
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-03
ISBN: 0743278909
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: Scribner
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780743278904
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Book Review: Are we free or doomed from birth?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my all-time favorite book. It contains the most important truths I have ever learned.
This book certainly could be viewed as Eastern Religion / New Age, and considering Bach's other books perhaps that is his main meaning.
However, JLS also contains important non-religious truths which apply to everyday life. For example, based on one of the most quoted parts of the book, "Jonathan" might answer everyday questions like this:
Are you saying I can lose weight and be thin, even though I've been fat my whole life?
I say you are free.
Are you saying that even though I finished near the bottom this year, with hard work I could finish near the top 3 or 4 years from now?
I say you are free.
Are you saying that even though the aptitude test showed I'm bad in math, that I could be successful in my dream job, engineering, if I try hard enough?
I say you are free.
Those answers are very, very different from the prevailing paradigm / meme within our society, which says that nearly everything is determined at birth, so that we are born either "fat" or "thin" people, born "smart" or "bad at math", born as "great athletes" or "losers". Society then tells us that we shouldn't try to change anything about ourselves (since it supposedly won't work), but should spend our lives happy or bitter because of the gifts that were handed out at the birth lottery. A key turning point is when Jonathan rejects the "strange hollow voice" in his mind which tells him:
"There's no way around it. I am a seagull. I am limited by nature. If I were meant to learn so much about flying, I'd have charts for brains. If I were meant to fly at speed, I'd have a falcon's short wings... I must... be content as I am, as a poor limited seagull."
Jonathan rejects this when he realizes that by tucking his wings close to his body he can simulate the falcon's short wings and fly fast even though he wasn't born with short wings. After he tries this and is able to fly faster than any gull could with extended wings, Jonathan realizes: "We can be free! We can learn to fly!"
JLS says that mental restrictions are the biggest factor keeping us from reaching our potential. Some of those restrictions come from society, and some are self-created mental straitjackets. All of those mental limits are false and unnecessary. The truth according to Jonathan is:
"Your whole body... is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your mind, and you break the chains of your body, too..."
(That can be seen as a totally non-religious statement. Our bodies today are the result of how hard we worked in the past and the mental limitations we didn't shed, and "our thought" = our mind is what determined that.)
This leads Jonathan to answer these questions very differently from society: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Should I be egotistical?
Society tells us that we should conform, and we specifically are what the birth lottery gave us, like someone might be "heavy set, average intelligence but good in math". Society says that we should be immensely proud of everything we (supposedly) were born with, and of every victory, and should be intensely ashamed of anything we were born without, and of every defeat.
Jonathan however, believing we are not limited by birth, sees each of us as being unique and of unlimited potential. Our goal and purpose in life is simply to be ourselves. This is not the limited self we are at the start of adult life, but everything which hard work could make us:
"you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.
Are you saying I can fly?
I say you are free."
"Each of us in truth is an idea... , an unlimited idea of freedom, and precision flying is a step towards expressing our real nature. Everything that limits us we have to put aside."
This means that ego is meaningless, because what we are today is simply the result of yesterday's hard work, and whatever races we lose today could be won in the future if we work hard enough. Today's ranking and abilities are just the starting point for the rest of our lives, not something to get egotistical about. As one of Jonathan's students thought with a smile once he began teaching his own students, "No limits, Jonathan? Well, then, the time's not too distant when I'm going to appear out of thin air on YOUR beach, and show you a thing or two about flying!..."
The reason why I discussed this in length is to disagree with reviews which say that JLS must be seen as a religious book, and that it teaches only "common sense" truths. It is rare, not common, to meet anyone who believes what JLS teaches.
Summary of Jonathan Livingston Seagull
This is a story for people who follow their hearts and make their own rules...people who get special pleasure out of doing something well, even if only for themselves...people who know there's more to this living than meets the eye: they?ll be right there with Jonathan, flying higher and faster than ever they dreamed."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). Nonetheless, this is a spirituality classic, and an especially engaging parable for adolescents. --Gail Hudson
Happiness Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Happiness Books
The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal: A Five-Year Recordby Gretchen Rubin
Potter Style; Published: 2011-11-01; Diary; Book
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops:
Just Love: Transforming Civic Virtueby Ann Mongoven
Indiana University Press; Published: 2009-07-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.38
Price in other shops:
How to Live Dangerously: Why We Should All Stop Worrying & Start Livingby Wrawick Cairns
Macmillan; Published: 2008-12-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $529.54
Happiness, Growth, and the Life Cycle (Iza Prize in Labor Economics)by Richard A. Easterlin, Holger Hinte, Klaus F. Zimmerman
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2011-01-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $28.00
Price in other shops:
Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral ProblemsOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.01
Price in other shops:
Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in PhilosophyOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2007-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.71
Price in other shops:
Happiness: The Science behind Your Smileby Daniel Nettle
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.76
Price in other shops:
Age Smart: Discovering the Fountain of Youth at Midlife and Beyondby Jeffrey Rosensweig, Betty Liu
FT Press; Published: 2006-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops:
The Best Year of Your Life: Dream It, Plan It, Live Itby Debbie Ford
HarperOne; Published: 2004-12-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.35
Price in other shops:
Choosing Happiness: Keys to a Joyful Lifeby Alexandra Stoddard
William Morrow; Published: 2002-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Hypnotizing Mariaby Richard Bach
Hampton Roads Publishing; Published: 2009-09-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.31
Price in other shops:
A Gift of Wingsby Richard Bach
Dell; Published: 1989-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spiritby Richard Bach
Delta; Published: 1995-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.46
Price in other shops:
Illusionsby Richard Bach
Laurel Books; Published: 1981-05-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.84
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiahby Richard Bach
Dell; Published: 1989-10-10; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.48
Price in other shops:
The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Storyby Richard Bach
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2006-11-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops:
Oneby Richard Bach
Dell; Published: 1989-10-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
The Little Princeby Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard
Mariner Books; Mariner Books; Published: 2000-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.43
Price in other shops:
Neil Diamond - Jonathan Livingston Seagull: Original Motion Picture SoundtrackDiamond; Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiahby Richard Bach
Delta; Published: 1998-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.81
Price in other shops: