Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! See less

FREE delivery Wednesday, January 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 3 hrs 49 mins

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$11.49 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by Zoom Books Company and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (81) from $3.34 + $3.99 shipping

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Walker Percy

Follow

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book Paperback – April 1, 2000

by Walker Percy (Author)

4.4 371 ratings

See all formats and editions

Los Angeles Times Book PrizeWinner, 1983

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$11.49","priceAmount":11.49,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"49","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"i%2FhvvvSAhssqZLeXG%2F3NigUH8VT%2FYH5KzCSCdcnbKoSCaLPm1X97630XcLU6A%2FX%2FLtY8DtHewDFvHHBWD5%2FyBIamG0n%2BvdlYbBHuGhM%2FxnmczWkWx5%2F5LCN8vJpQU%2F5fSfpu5kbPZwI%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.97","priceAmount":9.97,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"97","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"i%2FhvvvSAhssqZLeXG%2F3NigUH8VT%2FYH5K2w3vGEyP0nmEhs31GgvDTnuve6URnXIV12Cs%2BC97KJyImv86GXl7F%2Bnz%2BYRkMENzmWN5slrZM2%2B6d%2FP6dRpX8zPUT%2B8OQIMvRIMEngJlXHwCgffVULmGxmILnt02%2F8gpO5r5UPjTVd4uFDTpR40ztl6K57eLoTCv","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Walker Percy's mordantly funny and wholly original contribution to the self-help book craze deals with the Western mind's tendency toward heavy abstraction. This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A mock self-help book designed not to help but to provoke; a chapbook to inveigle us into thinking about who we are and how we got into this mess.” ―Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Original and imaginative, it conveys a serious, occasionally somber message in a vein of high comedy. I love this book. It is not to be read once through, but to be reread, savored, and pondered.” ―Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal

“This is a stunningly innovative collection, for readers who like both to chuckle and to think hard.” ―People

About the Author

Walker Percy wrote several books, many of them bestsellers, and is considered one of the greatest American writers of our time. His books include The Moviegoer and Love in the Ruins.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; Trade Paperback Edition (April 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312253990
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312253998
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #166,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #502 in Essays (Books)
- #1,642 in Fiction Satire
- #3,994 in Personal Transformation Self-Help

Customer Reviews:
4.4 371 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Walker Percy

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Walker Percy (1916–1990) was one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was the oldest of three brothers in an established Southern family that contained both a Civil War hero and a U.S. senator. Acclaimed for his poetic style and moving depictions of the alienation of modern American culture, Percy was the bestselling author of six fiction titles—including the classic novel The Moviegoer (1961), winner of the National Book Award—and fifteen works of nonfiction. In 2005, Time magazine named The Moviegoer one of the best English-language books published since 1923.

Customer reviews

371 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book thought-provoking and interesting. They describe it as funny, ironic, and satirical. The writing quality is described as well-written and clever. However, some readers feel the content is dated and incoherent at times.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Thought provoking Humor Writing quality Dated content

36 customers mention "Thought provoking"27 positive9 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and interesting. They appreciate its insightful views on the human condition and big themes in life. Readers appreciate the author's deep questions and wisdom.

"...humor for sure, but the book is overall more philosophical, subtle, wiser, and a little pessimistic. I think the comparison to Pascal is accurate...." Read more

"...That took away the expericance for me. It is an interesting read, and asks questions in a Socratic way that is appealing to the reader...." Read more

"Still reading this book. It makes you look at yourself and the world in a different way. Opens your mind up to new perspectives...." Read more

"...Certainly the title speaks to him. He, too, feels lost--maybe not "in the cosmos" so much but certainly in his own general vicinity...." Read more

15 customers mention "Humor"12 positive3 negative

Customers find the book humorous and ironic. They describe it as an insightful critique and satire of modernism. The humor is described as witty, irreverent, and weird.

"...There’s dry humor for sure, but the book is overall more philosophical, subtle, wiser, and a little pessimistic...." Read more

"...Opens your mind up to new perspectives. written with humor and wit." Read more

"...Half self-help, half science fiction, half comedy, if you're tired of life, read the book and get a new perspective." Read more

"...So, this is NOT really a humor/satire book, per se, although the dust jacket's description tries to bill it as such..." Read more

3 customers mention "Writing quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the writing quality good. They say it's well-written and clever.

"...Great wisdom and a lesson in semiotics. And Percy's beautiful prose..." Read more

"A brilliant tour-de-force by a great writer. Weird, off-beat, and clearly dated, there is a great deal more here than meets the eye...." Read more

"so well written and so clever...." Read more

7 customers mention "Dated content"2 positive5 negative

Customers find the content dated and incoherent. They mention the commentary seems archaic and some inside jokes are old.

"...But some of the inside jokes/references are a little dated for me as an undergrad and probally appeal to those 5-10 years older than me." Read more

"This was not a good book. It is very dated, and is at times incoherent...." Read more

"Dated." Read more

"...But what can be added at this point in time, is that the commentary now seems dated, even archaic...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Matt
An insightful critique and satire of modernism.
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
I had that weird realization about 3/4 into this book that the author knows me better than I know myself. If I had to sum up the book I’d say it is a critique and satire of all the failing strategies of modernism to find a meaningful connection to reality. The book cover gives you the impression that this book is like “A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,” but it’s quite different. There’s dry humor for sure, but the book is overall more philosophical, subtle, wiser, and a little pessimistic. I think the comparison to Pascal is accurate. Be prepared to work on this one. I have a degree and philosophy and I had to chew on some of this a bit to get it, but it’s worth the effort; There’s real treasure here.

Read more

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
derryl
This book makes you question your basic assumptions about who and what you think you are.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book - “the last self-help book” - is designed to make you question your basic assumptions about who you think you are, what you think you believe and value, and what you think you’re doing here.

Walker Percy delves into the problematic nature of “the self”: me, I. We have no problem observing other people and things and describing them, because we can “see them” with our eyes and describe them as objects. But my self is not an object that is visible to my eyes. My self is the subject that is having the experience of seeing other things. And my self is the person who has to go out in the world and do stuff, including interacting with other selfs. When I see my self, I see the reasons I have to be and do what I am and am doing. I see my subjective “excuses”. I don’t see my objective behavior.

“Who” is this “me” who is doing stuff and interacting with others? Percy says most of us simply have no clue who we actually are. We do not so much “describe” our self as we construct and “wear” some self or other. And we put on different selfs for different circumstances. We project an image of a self that we think is appropriate or serves our interests in various circumstances. Is one or any of these projections our “real” self? Is it even possible to live as a “genuine” person who behaves as he/she is, rather than behaves as his/her present version of its self thinks it “should”?

The book was published in 1983. By now (2019) most people are aware of the “consciousness” movement: the effort to wake up out of the false realities we have been lulled into believing in, and see actual reality clearly. The “awakened” self sees that none of its self-images are the real me, and tries to strip them away to discover who “me” really is. To do this requires mentally stepping back and viewing your self as an object, rather than “being” your self as an image-projecting subject. Then you will see yourself as an image-projecting “phony”, and maybe you will be able to find some more genuine way to be in your life here.

Percy gets into semiotics (sign-using); and dyadic and triadic relationships. Our use of signs (like words) makes us triadic beings. We are not like amoeba who probably never think about what they’re doing. When there is food, they wrap themselves around it and consume it. The amoeba never thinks it is eating food. It is in a simple dyadic relationship with its food: food-eat. The words “food” and “eat” are alien to the amoeba’s reality.

We are not like that. We say, “This is water”, as if the word water is the thing we’re referring to. But we are referring to the sensation of a liquid flowing over our hands or down our throat, not the sound of the spoken word water or the sight of the written word water. As triadic beings, we tend to confuse the sign (the word) for the thing; then we get ourselves into all kinds of confusion when we define words and expect the things to behave like our flawed, incomplete definition of the words. We define our self with words, then try to behave as that kind of thing “should” behave. When we fail to behave “according to definition”, we are even more confused.

Percy does not really offer a way out of the confusion. He leaves us Lost in the Cosmos, wondering who we are, how we got here, why we are here at all, and what we should do next. His is the “last” self-help book, maybe because after reading this book you will see that self-help books typically help you try to meet the requirements of some arbitrary definition of what you temporarily think you should be. Those books “help” you get even further lost in your image-projection of your most recent version of “me”.

Read more

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Neal Benson
Intersting read
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2024
Verified Purchase
Interesting read

Read more

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Report
J. Leahy
Lost in the Cosmos
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2012
Verified Purchase
Imagine a young man, freshly graduated from a mediocre State College. He studied music, or painting, or sociology, i.e. something a bit idealistic in ambition but rather quite useless to him in actual practice. He is in a used bookstore in a large Northeastern Metropolis and comes across a book entitled, "Lost in the Cosmos". He is intrigued. He flips intently through the book to ascertain if the little money he has to his name should be used to buy it. Certainly the title speaks to him. He, too, feels lost--maybe not "in the cosmos" so much but certainly in his own general vicinity. Nonetheless, little of the book quite makes sense to him. Let's face it, he wants to *stop* feeling lost, not go further into this awful feeling. He wants an answer, one that he can understand. He wants to be found, dammit! So, he puts the book down and moves on.

Twenty years later the man--now, alas, not so young--has been reading the novels of Walker Percy, e.g. "Love in the Ruins", or "Lancelot" and is reminded of "Lost in the Cosmos". He finally orders it online. After two decades of self-loathing masquerading as inflated notions of self-worth; after a lifetime of so many bad choices followed by even worse choices (punctuated by some really monumentally bad choices bordering on the comical) he finally reads the book.

He starts to get it, or so he hopes. The book explains his own life so brilliantly, not just his to be sure, but virtually everyone he knows. It is so pitch-perfect in laying out the dilemma of the free-floating, postmodern, nihilistic, autonomous self--and the various attempts to overcome this empty nothing we feel ourselves to be--that he is finally stunned into silence. More than anything else he finds this silence compelling. A choice is required. One that he has been studiously avoiding his entire life. He is lost in the cosmos--he always had been--but now, thank God, he finally knows it.

Do you:
A) Dismiss this review as the self-inflated pomp that it actually is and instead purchase something more entertaining or perhaps watch an episode of your favorite show on the internet? Nothing wrong with a little diversion, is there?
B) Buy the book and find out for yourself just exactly how lost you are?

Choose one.

Read more

200 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
AF
Huh?
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2010
Verified Purchase
I was forced to read this in Philosophy. That took away the expericance for me. It is an interesting read, and asks questions in a Socratic way that is appealing to the reader. But some of the inside jokes/references are a little dated for me as an undergrad and probally appeal to those 5-10 years older than me.

Read more

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
The self in the twentieth century is a voracious nought which expands like the feeding vacuole of an amoeba seeking to nourish .
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 2016
Verified Purchase
"...The self in the twentieth century is a voracious nought which expands like the feeding vacuole of an amoeba seeking to nourish and inform its own nothingness by ingesting new objects in the world but, like a vacuole, only succeeds in emptying them out.."

"(In the post-religious age)...Unlike the use of spirits in the past, the purpose of alcohol is not to celebrate the festival but to anesthetize the failure of the festival. The locus of the failure is the self. Accordingly, the subject to be anesthetized is the self. Richard Pryor: Why free-basing? Because it wipes out the self."

This book reminds us that it is okay to be lost in the cosmos. To be aware of feeling lost is to be compelled to search (for truth, meaning, God...).

Read more
Report
Miguel Angel Jimenez Lopez
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
Absolutely wonderful

Read more
Report
cates
this is really great
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
written as a series of questions this book really gets you thinking. Absolutely great

Read more
Report

See more reviews

Amazon Prime Free Trial

Return this item for free

Return this item for free

Image Unavailable

Follow the author