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This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women
 
 
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This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: pizza delivery dude, United States, World War, New York (more...)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In the 1950s, the Edward R. Murrow–hosted radio program This I Believe prompted Americans to briefly explain their most cherished beliefs, be they religious or purely pragmatic. Since the program's 2005 renaissance as a weekly NPR segment, Allison (the host) and Gediman (the executive producer) have collected some of the best essays from This I Believe then and now. "Your personal credo" is what Allison calls it in the book's introduction, noting that today's program is distinguished from the 1950s version in soliciting submissions from ordinary Americans from all walks of life. These make up some of the book's most powerful and memorable moments, from the surgeon whose illiterate mother changed his early life with faith and a library card to the English professor whose poetry helped him process a traumatic childhood event. And in one of the book's most unusual essays, a Burmese immigrant confides that he believes in feeding monkeys on his birthday because a Buddhist monk once prophesied that if he followed this ritual, his family would prosper. There are luminaries here, too, including Gloria Steinem, Warren Christopher, Helen Keller, Isabel Allende, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Updike and (most surprisingly, considering the book's more liberal bent) Newt Gingrich. This feast of ruminations is a treat for any reader. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Booklist

National Public Radio listeners have been moved to tears by the personal essays that constitute the series This I Believe. Created in 1951 with Edward Murrow as host, the sometimes funny, often profound, and always compelling series has been revived, according to host Jay Allison, because, once again, "matters of belief divide our country and the world." Oral historian Studs Terkel kicks things off, and 80 personal credos follow. Essays from the original series are interleaved with contemporary essays (selected from more than 11,000 submissions) to create a resounding chorus. English professor Sara Adams avers that one should "be cool to the pizza delivery dude." John McCain states, "I believe in honor, faith, and service." Iranian-born writer Azar Nafisi writes, "I believe in empathy." Jackie Robinson said, "I believe in the goodness of a free society." Rick Moody believes in "the absolute and unlimited liberty of reading." Appendixes offer guidelines and resources because the urge to write such declarations is contagious, and schools and libraries have been coordinating This I Believe programs, which we believe is a righteous endeavor. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (August 21, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805086587
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805086584
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,660 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #23 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Essays
    #23 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Collections & Readers
    #55 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Personal Transformation

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106 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars maybe exactly what you need right now, October 17, 2006
By Victoria A. Griffith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
  
I've been working too much lately, getting into my car at night with my head still swimming about all the things that are going on at the office. I try not to get like this, but sometimes, especially at this time of year, it's hard not to. Someone sent me a copy of an interesting audiobook though and I wanted to share a bit about it with you. Listening to it in 15 minute snippets on the way to and from work these past few weeks has turned me around.

If you're a public radio junkie, the series it's based on is probably old news to you. It's called "This I Believe" and it's a compilation of essays from individuals writing about what they believe in. Very simple concept. The people who have written essays are young and old, famous and not, successful and not, religious and not. There are some from the 1950s, some from 2006. I'm finding that spending a few minutes on my drive to and from work every day where I stop thinking about what happened today or what needs to happen tomorrow does me good as a person. Some of them made me cry (probably more than I should admit) and some made me laugh. Some I fast-forward through b/c I've no interest in the topic - but with 80 distinct essays to listen to, you can fwd through quite a few and still have lots to listen to.

You might be one of those people who is going to think this is smarmy, a little too saccharin or otherwise not as clever as you'd like -- but you should at least listen to a couple of excerpts. You may be surprised by the range of this collection - there are essays on the belief in science and math and the written word; others about kindness and hope and family; some on pizza delivery drivers and good barbecue and feeding monkeys on your birthday. I'm tempted to point out a couple of my favorites but I won't - because I'm pretty sure the excerpts that speak most vividly to me will be different than the ones that touch you. You should give yourself a few minutes right now to sample one or two from the npr website. And then you should buy the audio or the print book. It's maybe exactly what you need right now.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration to examine your own belief system, October 20, 2006
When I first received my copy of "This I Believe," I had no idea that it was actually from a popular 1950s radio show of the same name. Originally, "This I Believe" was hosted by Edward R. Murrow. It was aired throughout the United States and became so popular that two volumes of the essays were published and hit the Top-10 Bestseller's list for three years.

It was easy to become hooked as I read the first essay, and though some of the essays are 50 years old, they are still very relevent to what we are going through now as individuals and as a society.

The essays (of which there are 79) are 3-4 pages each and are essentially a brief outline of why the writer has a particular belief. The essays are personal stories which are written in a positive manner without being judgmental, preachy or obnoxious.

Some of the more well known writers include: William F. Buckley, Jr., Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Bill Gates and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame).

In the "Afterward" written by Dan Gediman, he explains the history of the famous radio show and how he was inspired to put together a book of some of the more famous essays from the show, while including some new essays from both famous and unknown writers of our day.

The appendix includes the original introduction of the radio show "This I Believe" by Edward R. Murrow, how to write your own "This I Believe" essay, and suggestions on how to use "This I Believe" in your own community. They also challenge you to write your own "This I Believe" essay and send it in to their website www.thisibelieve.org.

"This I Believe" is thoughtful, inspiring and thought provoking. It would provide invaluable insights and topics for those interested in public speaking or blogging. For teachers it can provide inspiration to help students find out their own belief systems.

Really an essay of the human heart, "This I Believe" challenges you to discover what your own belief system is. Do you know what you believe?

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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Reader's Digest level banality, January 4, 2008
Clearly, I'm in the minority on this one. But this book just didn't work for me at all. It seems like such a promising concept, too - "based on the NPR series of the same name, 80 essayists - from the famous to the previously unknown - complete the thought that begins the book's title".

But the result is - despite being a bestseller - a dreadful book. If I had checked it out in a bookstore, rather than buying it here on Amazon, I might have figured it out from the back cover. Here are the four 'quotes from inside' that the publishers use as a teaser:

"I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that the society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it." Jackie Robinson.
"I believe in empathy." Azar Nafisi.
"I believe in the pursuit of happiness. Not its attainment, nor its final definition, but its pursuit." Andrew Sullivan.
"Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it's good luck". Sarah Adams.

Well, yes. Am I supposed to argue with any of these noble sentiments? Hardly (though I might suggest a different justification for being cool to the pizza delivery dude than trying to generate future good karma). But it's precisely the completely unobjectionable, generally safe nature of the assorted beliefs expressed in the book that make it - and I may burn in hell for this - a major YAWN. If you crack open the book and can wade through some of the most mind-numbingly pompous prose imaginable, there are further nuggets to be gleaned:

Benjamin Carson believes that "there is no job more important than parenting".
William F. Buckley believes in God, but, being WFB, finds it necessary to express himself thusly: "This I believe: that it is intellectually easier to credit a divine intelligence than to submit dumbly to felicitous congeries about nature".
Jackie Lantry believes in the power of love to transform and heal.

Again, I'm not questioning the validity of these beliefs (what would give me the right?), but they end up being expressed in most cases with a kind of cliched banality that is available free in any Hallmark store. More charitably, in considering why this book ended up being such a disastrous collection of woolly-minded writing, almost never rising above hackneyed cliches and Reader's Digest level banality, I believe that the problem lies in the formulation of the question. It seems that asking people to come on the radio for three minutes to sum up the core beliefs of their lives is a poor mechanism to generate anything of interest. It's a trap, causing most respondents to founder in banal generalities.

The (very) few interesting contributors were smart enough to avoid the lure of the pompously abstract profundity, and rooted their answers in the specific. Here are the opening sentences of the three most interesting (OK, let's be honest, the only three truly interesting) essays:

'I consider myself a feminist, and I feel like a moron admitting it, but it's true: I believe in Barbie.'
'I believe in always going to the funeral. My father taught me that.'
'There is no such thing as too much barbecue'.

Let me be clear again - this review is in no way a critique of the expressed beliefs and opinions of the contributors. It is concerned only with the interest level and readability of their efforts. On those criteria, this book has to be considered a dreadful, soporific, failure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious thoughts about serious subjects
I found the essays in the book (This I Believe) well worth reading and often quite insightful. Whether the essayist was a well known person or one unknown prior to contributing to... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Edwin J. Kelly

4.0 out of 5 stars Private to patriotic
This book samples a variety of outlooks on the question of one's sustaining values. The writing is written in language suitable for middle-grade students through adulthood. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Asmah

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching the personalities of history
How often do you get to sit in the same room with some of the great personalities of history and have them tell you about themselves? Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. Bushman

5.0 out of 5 stars This I believe
This was a very inspiring set of cd's, I have started writing my own story. Very interesting.
Published 2 months ago by Brian Brooks

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful essays based on people's experiences
I was expecting the essays to be filled with mostly dry rhetoric and generalizations. Instead I was pleasantly surprised that most included detailed anecdotes that provided the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by F. Hussain

5.0 out of 5 stars Some good, some OK, but the great stories make this series worth it
I'm always looking for a good audiobook to listen to on the way to work and back, and this series has been one of the best I've heard. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Nicholas Homer

5.0 out of 5 stars loved it!
uplifting, funny, touching, thought-provoking and so many other great things. I bought this book to read in the airport and on flights for a recent business trip. Read more
Published 9 months ago by cc

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
This series is very thought provoking. I listen to these CDs on my way to work every morning and they get me in just the right frame of mind to get on with my day. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Kimberly J. Hogan

2.0 out of 5 stars Choking on the Pith Here
I found This I Believe to ultimately be a little pithy and heavy-handed at times. Which seems only natural when people are passionately expressing their "personal credos. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Stacey @ Tree, Root, and Twig

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY GOOD READ
I bought this for my dad for his birthday a few months ago because I consider him to be a remarkable person as well. He thoroughly loved it and is having my mom now read it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by P. Bentley

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