Living the Golden Life by Li Mai

Short Book without Much Substance

This book is an odd combination of parts. The first forty pages or so are a brief look at some Taoist and ancient Chinese concepts. The author certainly overstates in both the subtitle and the book description what this book is. It is certainly not a “proven unique approach to mental health and behavior at the spiritual level,” as the subtitle says. Instead, the bulk of the book is the 20 very short Taoist “lessons”—just a few paragraphs really—on principles and ideas that end with actions to do or actions to avoid. Some of these are written more like affirmations and others more like directions of what to do and not to do. There are just three in each category (do and do not), so there isn’t much substance in these between these and the few paragraphs also in the “lessons.” The book is clearly written by someone who is a non-native English speaker. Not only does this cause problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage—which are unfortunately scattered throughout the book—but it also gives rise to some lines that are just completely nonsensical. For instance, in one of the first lessons, the author states, “ ‘Pile’ is not the opposite of ‘face’, [sic] that have [sic] two sides.” I have no clue what that sentence is supposed to mean. What do “pile” and “face” have to do with each other? I’m thinking something got mistranslated along the way. I believe EVERY writer needs to have their work professionally edited, but it is even more critical when the writer is not a native speaker of the language he or she is writing in.

I did enjoy some of the quotes from Lao Tzu, particularly the one that went with her first lesson, “If you don’t change direction, then you might end up where you are heading.” This is only a 59-page PDF that I received as an ARC, but on page 11, the author already asks for reviews at Amazon. I find that so annoying.

Then the last 20 or so pages is a quiz that you can take to see which Chinese element you most embody. Honestly, I found this book to have so little substance as to not be worth my time, really. I do enjoy reading books on a variety of spiritual topics, so I was looking forward to this book to see what wisdom and information I could glean. The book was so poorly done and so brief that it didn’t have much to offer.