The Last 60 Minutes by David McCrae
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I am happy that one of the first chapters of this book notes the following: ‘I would think nothing of polishing off half a bottle of rum while watching a film.’ I am happy because I thought nothing of polishing off half a bottle of a delightful herb liqueur to help me through this book. No task half-done, no job half-finished.
Now, to begin with: Please, anyone out there, don’t hire anyone else as your “life coach”. These things do not exist. Life is the coach if anyone is, and to pretend that someone else can tell you what will be valuable in your life is as bad a gamble than the Athenians took at Syracuse. Could have gone either way, you say? That’s true, but it went south. Deep south.
If you want to feel happier or more pensive, read Kahlil Gibran or Muhammad Iqbal or Hermann Hesse. Read something, listen to someone, watch a new film. But when I say read something, I possibly mean something other than this book, and I will outline a few reasons below.
Firstly, books like this suffer greatly for getting their facts wrong, like the comment on Churchill being elected Prime Minister in ’40. If we’re meant to be helping ourselves, how about the author taking the time to help himself craft a credible argument and not a soundbite?
Next, I was slightly uneasy after the author mentioned that he thinks the Sun rises to bring light into his life. I mean, it might. But also, it might not. I think the latter is a bit more likely, perhaps because of a) those seven billion people the author also mentions in the book, but, more likely, b) as it has done it for hundreds of millions of years and will keep on doing so for hundreds of millions of years (unless we as the “extremely capable” humans do something very clever).
And… I mean… Goodness… The author also entirely misunderstood Tolkien’s creation. Elves, “immortal and perfect”? I wonder what the poor souls who died in the Kinslayings thought of that. Or, of their best and most wonderful being the only one of their kind to actually die? Not to mention that the Valar also created the Dwarves, Ents, Trolls, Orcs, etc, but I guess these didn’t fit into the picture the author was trying to get across here. “Immortal and perfect” or “mortal and imperfect”. It’s never that easy, mate.
At least I created something with this review, and in light of the author’s words in the book, that’s the most important thing I could have done today. Isn’t that just dandy?
