Customer Reviews

Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a dichotomy of inner child meeting up with grown man, in metaphorical terms. An autobiographical account of the author's life, although a mental stretch, will make the reader re-examine their lives and choices along the way. Made me laugh and cry.
Arlene Millman
author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY

I didn't feel there was any new content in this book, it seemed to me to be a different story on what Richard has already talked about in his other books. Still the basic story was good and worth reading.

This book successfully explores intimacy, comfort zones, A philosophy to live by, skeletons in the closet and the current limitations of linear space-time. Truly a must read for anyone who wants to travel through life with conscienceness.

When "Running From Saftey" first came out I couldn't read it. I remember thinking that the book just didn't speak to me at all, and I gave up after less than 100 pages. Was I ever wrong!! Recently, I remembered the book and decided to give it another try. I am 39 this year -- youth, aging, who I was, who I will be are very heavy in my "approaching 40" mind. The wisdom, insight, and ideas I gained from this book amazed me. It is nothing short of remarkable. Read it, savor it, learn from it!

Richard Bach has written some wonderful books. I highly recommend Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions for the soul-seekers among us, The Bridge Across Forever for the romantics, and his earlier autobiographies for those of us who have always wanted to fly.

But this time he's gone overboard. I've tried a few times to get through Running From Safety, but I've never made it all the way through. In this quasi-autobiographical book, Richard Bach sets up all sorts of straw-man 'learning experiences' to show how he's learning to let go of the complications and the rationalizations of an adult mind and be true to the hopes and dreams he had as a young boy. The message is good enough, but he goes about it heavy-handedly, setting himself up repeatedly then taking himself down with the morals he's trying to get across. The result is that he doesn't portray himself realistically, and he certainly doesn't come across as the same person who the Illusions / Bridge Across Forever / One trilogy set himself up to be. This new Richard Bach is less graceful and more sappy.

But the real problem, the reason why I actively recommend against this book, is that the author's own life invalidates it. The principal message of the book is to stop being a dull, boring, un-fun adult rationalizing away all your hopes, and to remain true to what you once dreamed as a child, right? Well, The Bridge Across Forever beautifully showed Richard Bach's hopes for someday finding his soulmate, his 'other half,' without whom he's just not whole... but recent rumors, confirmed by a story on Bach's web site, are that he has divorced his soulmate because his hobbies and his career were more important to him than she was. It's very hard to accept that the person who would do that is the same person who wrote this book.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't fault the man for making choices in his own life, but I feel that Richard Bach has in recent years gone from being a brave and unusual thinker to becoming a New Age mystic, and in doing so, he's lost touch with at least this reader.

In this book, I think Richard Bach tries to show us how to find the core of ourselves. So many times we abandon thoughts and never quite finish them (not that any thought is ever finished)..:) But he had reminded me of these thoughts I had once abandoned. Richard Bach has become one of my favorite authors, not just because of this book, but the majority of his work is equally fulfulling. Prepare to change your perspective of life if you decide to read this book:)

This book gets you to talk to your ownself.After being born,and as we grow up we tend to forget the child within ourselves and leave it alone.After reading this one tends to look back to the child within oneself. During lifetime one comes across many things and learns a lot every moment and sharing these with the little child that is there in every being is very important. It is just an excellent book....and helps you to know oneself better.

This is a great book, but read these first since they are the best of Richard Bach (IMHO):

1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull 2. Illusions 3. The Bridge Across Forever

This is the second book from this author I read (The first one was Johnatan living...) and I found it really great. Actually, thanks to the book, I am more encouraged and do my work better ¡I have been ascended thanks to it! Thank You Richard Bach and excuse my bad english.

I read this book at a more vulnerable stage in my life, when I was prone to ideas of fairy-floss and fun parlours. I almost ran myself....from resposibility! Thankfully I had a good psychologist to convince me otherwise. Freedom is not achieved by running...it is achieved by looking things squarely in the eye. I haven't seen the book since I bought it. What a wonderful thought...that I had FORGOTTEN ever throwing it in the trash. Just a question for anyone who thinks any of this stuff to be definitive in terms of creating solutions to problems one encounters in life....are you sure you aren't being hood-winked? Try reading the book objectively, and it may suddenly appear as not quite the friendly character you had supposed it to be!