Title:
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
Author:
Jordan B. Peterson
Read
by: Overture read by Norman Doidge, Book
read by the Author
Publisher:
Random House
Length:
Approximately 15 hours and 40 minutes
Source:
Purchased from Amazon.com (and hard cover copy from the library)
12
Rules for Life is apparently a very popular book, but it was a “did not
complete” book for me. I tried reading
the book itself first and then switched to audiobook. It read so much like a textbook to me that I
had to force myself to read. The audiobook was better with it coming across
more as a lecture delivered by the author. This was a January selection for the
Kewaunee Library Book Club. It prompted a good discussion at book club.
The
12 Rules for Life were as follows.
Rule
1. Stand up straight with your shoulders
back.
Rule
2. Treat yourself like someone you are
responsible for helping.
Rule
3. Make friends with people who want the
best for you.
Rule
4. Compare yourself to who you were
yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
Rule
5. Do not let your children do anything
that makes you dislike them.
Rule
6. Set your house in perfect order
before you criticize the world.
Rule
7. Pursue what is meaningful (not what
is expedient).
Rule
8. Tell the truth – or at least, don’t
lie.
Rule
9. Assume that the person you are
listening to might know something you don’t.
Rule
10. Be precise in your speech.
Rule
11. Do not bother children when they are
skateboarding.
Rule
12. Pet a cat when you encounter one on
the street.
I
made it through the first six rules before book club and chose not to complete
it after book club. The rules themselves
are good common-sense rules, but the author has a lot of filler and can’t get
to the point. The author also seems to dislike
women and it seemed like it was because he had a hard time getting a girlfriend
as a teen. Therefore, women are “too
picky” and only looking for the biggest, strongest man. That was too simplified for the complications
of human relationships. I was surprised
to find out he was married.
Self-help
is admittedly not my favorite genre. I
never took psychology in high school or college. I have no interest in it, I am a hard science
type of person.
I
did notice at book club that those that watched the YouTube videos of the
author seemed to like them and have a more favorable view. I had not watched the videos myself. A few people did read the entire book, but
it appeared that the majority did not. I
felt bad as I usually always read an entire book for book club in order to have
a good discussion, but this one did not work for me.
I
did think it was ironic that one rule was about not judging people, but in the
rule before about raising children, the author was very judgmental about other
parents. He had some good advice, but
also a lot of weirdness about his thoughts on child rearing. This led book club
to criticize “parents these days.” Sad sigh.
I am the youngest person currently in book club with everyone a
generation ahead of me. I pointed about
that George Eliot had a section about how terrible “kids these days are” in
Silas Mariner one hundred and fifty years ago.
Luckily that got book club off of that topic.
Favorite
Quotes:
“The
things you can see, with even a single open eye. It’s no wonder that people want to stay
blind.”
“A
child who pays attention, instead of drifting, and can play, and does not
whine, and is comical, but not annoying, and is trustworthy – that child will
have friends wherever he goes.”
Overall,
I am not sure why The 12 Rules for Life is such a popular book. It needs an editor to have the arguments for
the Rules much more concise and readable.
