Reviews

Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

plcbaker's review against another edition

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5.0

More good advice, with interesting examples used to illustrate the points. Helpful for me just to differentiate between mind, body and spirit. 

mrdaisybates's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I've read a few Holiday books. This is pretty on par with the others. I seemed to enjoy this one a bit more than some of the others. I'm not certain if it's because Holiday was just at his best or if because the subject matter is close to the hearts of myself and modern society. Either way, I enjoyed the read. Pace was good. Great lessons, or at least provoking thoughts, all scattered throughout. 

russellcw's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

vlnntnn's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.5

samadghulam's review against another edition

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5.0

Stillness is a window to let you know that whatever you think about success is wrong, yes hard work can kill you, yes stressing can kill you but how to be successful, and what is success in the first place?
It's the sync of Mind, Body, and soul I have read many self-help books but this is something else, Ryan has written uniquely with actual solutions not with be positive bullshit. It's something we can work on and be successful beyond our imagination

sprout_monster's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

This book is just an argument that stillness is necessary for long  term success using examples of famous people. This book is all philosophy and not really on how to find that stillness. So I'd say it's not self help but just philosophy and maybe inspiration.

alisonb's review against another edition

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3.0

I am not hugely familiar with Stoic philosophy, yet I have come by a lot of these mottos in the more general way of living life for four and a half decades. There wasn’t too much that was new here, but it was nice to be reminded in order to refocus my thoughts.

I found the examples of well known figures to be interesting, albeit very male-centric.

There was a point at which I started to skim the book since I felt familiar with these ideas and I was looking for something new, refreshing, and ground breaking. I didn’t find that here, but I will still read some of his other works and see if I can glean something new.

vandeneeckhoutkoen's review against another edition

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3.0

I'm still a big fan of Ryan Holiday and I am convinced that Stillness ís the Key to a balanced life, but if you read the title you already know about 80% of what's in the book

christophrcolon's review against another edition

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3.0

Some good, some bad. Overall not a bad book but Holiday's tactic of taking the best pieces of wisdom from others on a topic and combining it into a book of his own is starting to wear on me. There doesn't seem to be any added benefit to reading Holiday's books. He doesn't necessarily add anything to the compilation.

He will typically tell a story pertaining to the topic (in this case, stillness) and that talk in circles, reiterating the main points of the example he just gave and then repeat this process with another story.

Will probably not end up reading any more of his novels. I think people would be much better off reading the source material or a non-fiction author that can add commentary a bit better.

maciea's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

4.5