Siddhartha and Hesse live on

I first read Siddhartha and other Hesse books in my early 20's during the early 70's while a student at the University of Iowa as well as during a tour with the US Army. For many, back then, Hesse seemed to strike a cord for helping you make sense of life and where your own life was headed. Over the years thoughts of these Hesse books would come back to me remembering perceived pearls of wisdom.

So now these forty years later I decided to give Hesse's books another go. Now in my 60's and retired, Siddhartha still gives out a perspective on life. There is still life to be lived in the golden years. Reinforcing the thought that life is for the living, Siddhartha discusses that one shouldn't get too serious about the meaning of life, the challenge is to accept life as it is, with both the good and the bad, in the end it's all the same thing, a life.

One interesting aspect listening to this now is that when I first read the book back in the day I was reading it from the perspective that I was a son and what impact did my own father have on the direction of my life. Considerable I suppose. But now I look at it from the perspective of the father, having a son of my own in his 20's. Accepting and letting him lead his own life isn't always easy but realizing that he will lead his own life is the challenge. Once you accept that, it gets a lot easier.

It is amazing that almost 100 years after being written this book still has meaning, maybe now a maturity.

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Outstanding audiobook (author+narrator)

Story's reviews are available in many resources, so I'll focus on the narrator. He has a really soothing voice and an excellent command of it. The toning, emphasizing and volume changes per context were all in place and outstanding. I hope I can get more books he has read.

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Run at 0.90 speed

It’s read too fast for me with few gaps between sentences to give time to absorb

Running at 0.90 speed helps a lot. Even 0.80

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Meditation in Story Form

I wasn't sure what I was getting into. I didn't even remember why I had this on my list to read, but I'm glad I read it. It's your basic philosophy for life. With the entire point being that its not the end that is the goal, but the path that is the goal. That you should never stop learning, never stop getting closer to enlightenment.

I feel like this book is essentially meditation in story form if that makes sense.

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Not THAT David Cross

Not read by the comedian, David Cross, if you're hesitating to buy based on that.

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Deep and profound and impactful

The narrator's voice was a bit robotic at times while eating up the words at other times. But the voice was soothing.
Also, the sentences were read in a confusing way on a few occassions. I had the book so was reading it along with the Audio. At quite a few places I had to read by myself to understand the meaning properly.

This book gives deep insights into wants & desires, perceptions of self and others, the judgement of self and others.
It touches upon the concept of time and how we think of past, present & future and gives it some insightful interpretation.

It did shake me up to have some spiritual thoughts, which I didn't pay attention/ignored or probably just kept for my older self,

Anyways, loved the simplicity of content and explanation.

Enchanting. provoking and healing

Examines the curiosity we all share about the nature of that something we name Time, the river of coming into and going out of being, the only One immanent eternal Now of all that is, was, and shall ever be. A love letter to our own inward Siddhartha, read flawlessly to us by David Cross, with deep respect and great tenderness.

Very Nice story

It helps to understand many of the principles we hear on buddhism and spirituality. Easy and short.

Great story

Great story with deep thoughts to think about. Many that I needed to write down to think on longer.

A Good Reminder

Siddartha’s life is a good reminder not to get worked up about the trivialities of life and when you have to look at the world, take an optimistic perspective or at least realize that every part of the world is just a piece of a grander reality and not all will understand this.

Beyond the “life advice” or affirmations or perspective one can derive from this book, it was presented well. The orator wasn’t difficult to listen to and the story itself revealed a lot of things about Siddartha that I didn’t know! Which is always great to learn something new.

The only reason I gave a 4/5 in the “overall” category is because I didn’t know what to expect from this book based on the information provided about it on audible before purchasing. Thus, I had in the back of my mind there would be a scene that marked the transition from Siddartha to the Buddha, which never came - or at least not the way I suspected it to. However, I came into this book with prior “knowledge” on the subject which, due to it being collected from secondary sources may have been abridged and not entirely accurate. In any case, the background on this book prior to purchase could’ve been stronger, so the reader knows what he/she is getting.