Customer Reviews

The Meaning of Life

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm pretty versed when it comes to motivational and self-help books. There seems to be a trend these days that you must use at least 300+ pages to get your message across, when in reality 95% of that is just "stuffing".

"The Meaning Of Life" is a brilliant book because of it's to-the-point simplicity. Don't let the cute pictures distract you or flip through the pages so quickly; give some thought to the text. I was amazed at what this book did for me!

I thought(and think) that Bradly Trevor Greive is the best author. I've read all of the other reviews and most of them were either good or horrible. I think that the people who say its the most meaningless thing they've ever read and could've been written by a ten year old are missing the point. Yes, it could have been written by a 10 year old but that's what makes it so fantastic! It's simple and funny.

When I saw the reviews that said the pictures were degrading animals I laughed out loud. I guess they want everyone to think that if somthing is funny then it is degrading. I thought they were extremely uplifting. After I read this book I spent my break asking the questions it asks.

All in all I would recomend this book to everyone who loves to have a good laugh and enjoys some of the most siple things in life

This book is for anyone and everyone. The author sets the readers expectations in the intro, that this book does NOT provide answers - it is a book about questions. When I picked this book up at [local store], I found myself so overjoyed I read the entire book in the store. With useful wisdom applying to all areas of life, the book does not stress an answer or religeon or method, though it agrees with the loving happiness you will find stressed in any society or religion. Nothing metaphysical - this book is simple and may have a different meaning for each reader.
The most brilliant author since Aesop.

I bought this book some time ago as an impulse purchase. After showing it to friends the author wound up with another half dozen sales. This book simply resonates for anyone willing to find messages in the natural occurences around us.

While the pictures themselves could stand on their own, Greive's arrangement and text additions provide the perfect flow. In a few cases they add a touch of fun humor that would have otherwise been absent: one, for example, showing an arangutang with a distraught blank look with a caption about what it feels to go all the way to the mall just to forget what you went there for is priceless.

Points should also be given to Grieve for finding the pictures in the first place. With libraries worth of pictures to choose from, Grieve managed to find ones that show exactly the expressions from animals that we can recognize in ourselves: joy, sadness, confusions, excitement, activity, relaxation, meditation and satisfaction are all represented.

If you're the kind of person who looks at the stars and says, "Feh. I've seen them before," then this book isn't for you. But if you can appreciate a picture of a parent and child cheetah, with the parent looking board, and the child looking at the white dots flying arond his head, with a caption asking why children believe in fairies but "grown-ups" don't, then I cannot recommend this book enough. Highest rating.

I have a somewhat challenging family to buy for when it comes to presents - what with the differing religious viewpoints and all - but the sweetness of this book cuts through potential differences and gently brings some typically touchy areas together.It's a lighthearted, frothy thing that actually carries a little weight. I don't think it's meant to replace any Big Books on the subject, but is a nice encapsulation. Buy it and give it - but first read it yourself. That's what I did.

That's a bold title for a book with a fluorescent frog on the cover, Brad Greive hardly expects you to take him seriously, and yet, there's enough substance to learn something about keeping life in perspective.

The photos are remarkable, like the vertical look upward between two skyscrapers and the bull breaking up a china shop (so it really does happen!).

For example, Greive juxtaposes photos of polar bears: the first pair of bears are engaged in paw-to-paw combat, and in the opposing page, he shows two similar bears dancing. His message below says how doing the cha-cha is less injurious yet as effective as fighting for resolving tension.

Greive is witty, warm and smart with his comments. I fully recommend "The Meaning of Life" by Brad Greive as an excellent gift choice.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

We all have those cast-off generic "gift books" that lay around in some unused corner of our dwelling. You know, the books with children's letters to the tooth fairy, or little flowery poems about mothers. These books are hastily bought up from Hallmark stores and Walgreens each generic holiday and tossed in a gift bag with some half-rate chocolates and a crumy 99 cent card in our last-dash effort to conjure up a last-minute gift. These are usually obligatory gifts that we feel we have to give, even though we may really love and care about the recipient and feel like a jerk because we can't think of something else, at the last minute, to gift them with on our way to Aunt Helga's family reunion, late as usual. Two days later, your gift book finds its self laying with other passed-on rejects at the inventory check-in counter of your local used bookstore while the clerk groans to see yet another gifty bound volume of mushy valentines prose. Being continuously re-gifted is the career of these books until some kind soul mercifully chucks them to the trash heap with a mighty swing of disgusted zeal.

I used to be there. I was on both ends, a shameful purchaser of these thankless books, and also a silently groaning recipient of the book world's version of fruit cake. Then one day upon the tank of my toilet, I find this green little hardback, The Meaning of Life, laying unassumingly on the barren porcelain turf. Knowing my mother must have left it hoping I would take a moment from my workaholic life to indulge in a book, I did just that. Is it awfully cheesy to say that this little book touched me most profoundly?

I sat, reading page by page, and simply breathed in the peace and stillness of just a few moments of my otherwise rigorous day. The simple words in uncluttered typeset reached my heart and soul as profoundly soothing. Roll your eyes if you want, but I've read this book uncountable times since, in both times of sorrow and joy, and it has continued to have the same result on me. Of course, the humor of these books also deserves to have a comment. Both the text and the unique photos on each page spread, will make even the most hardened grump crack a grin.

A few years later and it still rests on the same spot my knowing mother left it, however, now it lives in a simple basket joined with Bradley Trevor Greive's other witty, heartfelt volumes, each a work in its own.

Do yourself a favor...break the fruit-cake-gift-book syndrome and gift your love one with this true jewel of a treasure. Aunt Helga will thank you.

If you enjoy animals, you will enjoy the photographs depicting them in this book. Many of the facial expressions and the statements can be attributed to bad days, sad days, and silly days! Great stocking stuffer, pick-me-up, or surprise gift. Just a little something to tell others you're thinking of them.

Like THE BLUE DAY BOOK, THE MEANING OF LIFE is part humor, part inspiration. The message is simple: basically have a positive attitutde, embrace life, love what you do. It's a perfect book to leave on your desk at work or give to a friend (especially one who's down, out of a job, just graduating, and so on).

Many of the animal photographs and the captions are hilarious, just like Greive's other books. I'd be surprised if anyone bought just one copy. :)

Excellent, encouraging, uplifting, entertaining! If you are looking for a book that encourages you to follow your dreams in the face of the status quo, you need this one! A quick and pleasant read, great photos, awesome message. Highly recommended.