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rissapappas's review against another edition
5.0
The Tao Te Ching may be THE foundational Taoist text, but The Tao of Pooh is MY foundational Taoist text. I don't even care about Winnie the Pooh. It was never my thing. But the way Hoff uses the ubiquitous Pooh characters too explain the heady principles of Taoism makes this one of the most accessible books on the subject. Now, the Te of Piglet was new to me and frankly, compared to Tao of Pooh, it sucks. It does a lot of preaching and takes a very whiny tone of the "things are crazy these days and they used to be perfect" ilk which I cannot stand, especially coming from a white guy. I've never even seen a picture of the guy and I know he's white because of his total self assurance and complete lack of humility. This isn't an issue in the Tao of Pooh, so I cannot recommend that book enough. But Te of Piglet annoyed me much more than it helped me.
lauramdb's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the Tao of Pooh a lot more than the Te of Piglet.
machen27's review
The Tao of Pooh seems to be a reasonable enough description of Taoism via the lens of Pooh, but Benjamin Hoff tips his hand pretty quickly that he is incurious and dogmatic in his adherence to Taoist philosophy. I started Te of Piglet and was immediately bombarded with further ranting about how we have lost our way and how just “being” will solve the problems human society has subjected itself to.
The most damning part of this work is that I often agree with Hoff’s critiques. Capitalism has created a consumption culture that *is* harmful. Western science *has* failed to consider bases of knowledge and made great mistakes as a result (see, for example, the use of intentional fires as a forest management tool long used by many Indigenous cultures that was completely rejected by Western ideas of forest management until recently), I can’t recommend this work because Hoff constructs strawmen of the ideas he critiques, failing to really engage with the ways Taoism works (and doesn’t) in addressing the ails he raises. Skimming The Te of Piglet only shows this more fully. It’s fluffy pop philosophy and you’re better served reading pretty much anything else.
The most damning part of this work is that I often agree with Hoff’s critiques. Capitalism has created a consumption culture that *is* harmful. Western science *has* failed to consider bases of knowledge and made great mistakes as a result (see, for example, the use of intentional fires as a forest management tool long used by many Indigenous cultures that was completely rejected by Western ideas of forest management until recently), I can’t recommend this work because Hoff constructs strawmen of the ideas he critiques, failing to really engage with the ways Taoism works (and doesn’t) in addressing the ails he raises. Skimming The Te of Piglet only shows this more fully. It’s fluffy pop philosophy and you’re better served reading pretty much anything else.
biolexicon's review against another edition
3.0
I wish I had read this book in conjunction with other religious texts. Looking at the details of how it is similar to the Bible, for instance, would have been an good exercise in remembering that there is common ground amongst different spiritual beliefs. Though this book is an excellent resource on Taoism; I didn’t get as much out of it as I had hoped. I can’t tell if it is because I had a class that went over Taoism’s fundamentals or if it is the book itself. It might be the latter; the book is written to have a smooth flow and not to get bogged down in details (mirroring a Taoist lifestyle) but it sometimes seems to be a bit too light. I had two other problems with the book: the writer would try to make connections with problems in modern day society (the connections seemed more like rants and less like intelligent commentary) and the imagined dialogue between the author and Pooh seemed corny and contrived. This was especially true in the second book, The Te of Piglet. Overall though, this was a very creative approach to explaining Taoist principles and was worth my time to read.
jessshire_cat's review against another edition
2.0
This book is a 2 in 1. First part is the Tao of Pooh and the second part is the Te of Piglet.
Things I enjoyed:
Things I enjoyed:
divermads's review against another edition
3.0
The book itself and the philosophy was really interesting, lovely references to Winnie the pooh. But in the "te of piglet" there were times the author came off as arrogant, complained a lot about society (looking down his nose at it) and also quite bigoted with outdated views. Might be due to when the book was published, but still, the 5 pages attacking feminism was unnecessary, to the degree it was funny....
kobegold's review
inspiring
medium-paced
3.0
A couple really nice little take away, especially for. The Tao of Pooh section :)