I was a fan of The Road to Character by David Brooks and was pretty excited to get this book as an eARC from the publisher through netgalley, but it took me a long time to get through this book. I was very interested in the core focus of a relationist society being more sustainable than an individualistic society and this book explores this theme pretty extensively with a mixture of quotations and summaries of various texts from history & religion, anecdotes, some memoir type episodes and a lot of almost-manifesto (the end is an actual manifesto). While definitely intellectually stimulating in Brooks' signature style, the book also wanders a fair bit, with a lot about Brooks' search and growth through religion and in general, a number of theses on how people ought to live, without the connections between sections being quite clear. I may try reading again in a different period in life to see what else I can glean.

I enjoy listening to David Brooks on NPR every Friday afternoon and read "The Road to Character." However, this book seemed awfully preachy, so I have put it down halfway through. I think he has good points, but comes off as a bit full of himself. I did not find that to be the case as much with Road to Character.

While this book did drag in some places, it was a fantastic look at the way society has changed (and needs to continue to change). The chapters on how students are being sent out into the world with no idea of who they are and what to do with that (lack of) knowledge really hit home for me, both from personal experience and from sending my students out after graduation.

This was a really interesting read that really lays out a path to living a more meaningful life. I liked that the author broke up the milestones many of us have in life and laid out the commitments that each require. It was a fascinating and eye-opening read!

I loved the first 30-40% of this book. I found the main theme intriguing - it goes without saying that David Brooks is a deep thinker and strong writer. He intersperses interesting statistics, quotes, philosophical and literary references to defend and support his positions and conclusions. However, I don't think he does a good job of answering the main question of the book of how to find your second mountain. By the second half of the book I felt it simply became a rambling on topics that he wanted to write about as he attempted and was unsuccessful at tying them together into one theme. This book would have served the reader better as a book of essays.