The Worst Book Ever.

There are certainly many books I have been obliged to read, including the compulsory readings at school and at uni, but, also, the books I've had to read due to my students' interests.

At the present moment, I am running a reading course for a group of adults, all related to CORFO.and given that theory says that reading comprehension skills are best developed when grounding the teaching objectives to the student's inner motivation, we have decided that each person would select a different book, and read at least 20 pages of it, and then I have got to produce reading comprehension questions for each one.... Well, guess.!

To make a long story short, now I have to read as many as 15 different books, well, I don't have to read them comprehensibly, but I have to get an understanding of them, so I can help my students with the understanding of their readings.

The topics they selected are very varied, some of them very interesting and my reading-type, but some others....let's say, ... I love my job!


There is one particular book, which I have not been able to read because I think is corny, shallow, intolerant and I believe is intended to convice weak-minded people that the road to hapiness is only one and that one only.

The book is called: "Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living" by Pema Chödrön, an American figure in "Tibetan Buddhism". The piece deals, in a rather humorous way, with the topics of happiness and misery in human spiritual and material life, and it intends to persuade the reader to embrace rather than deny the painful aspects of our lives.

Even though I do really agree with everything that can stimulate a better life quality and spiritual betterment, I believe that the book deepens little on the aspects of people's lives, this is because the author at all times, puts forward his suppossedly wondefully-full-of-expereinces life as a true example of someone who has succeeded in the pursuit of happiness and mental-quieteness.

I would have preferred him to show other lives' stories, I would have liked it to be a portrait of many people, with very distant backgrounds and in such way, I think it would have been a lot more relevant and prone to consideration. For me it is just another "try-helping-yourself" populist book.

At any rate, I am going to be forced to finish it, not for myself, but for my student's reading comprehension development, and in doing so, I am sure I'll try to enjoy it (though I'm not sure I'll like it)


http://www.dailygood.org/pdf/ij.php?tid=268