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 enlarge | Author: Steven Kotler
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $4.34
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New (31) Used (24) from $4.34
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 124262
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1596913444
Dewey Decimal Number: 797
EAN: 9781596913448
ASIN: 1596913444
Publication Date: May 29, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
 Loved the Journey October 12, 2007
I've surfed much longer than Steven (since 1967 and have 4 surfboards now) but found his kinship with the waves and his parallel journey just a fascinating journey to boot! Kotler grabs images and hurls them at just the right speed into the reading so that I found myself again and again saying, "yes that's it!" when he would describe a feeling or a signpost of life. I only lost energy at the very end with his wandering conclusion and the Eddie Aikau metaphor which I thought was contrived. The entire lure of the story of the "Conductor" almost convinced me but not really. What I found most interesting rather than all of that was his usage of surfing as a return from the problems of a chronic disease. That was the heart of this book. In that Steven was a maestro. His journey to the beach and his encounter with what we surfers have come to know as "stoke" is no joke. There really is something transcendent about surfing and something so divine as being in the midst of God's stuff when it all works right--that is the juice that keeps me returning to the sea and what drew me to this book. Probably for surfers only however!
 West of Awesome September 19, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Michael Crichton's "Travels" used to be my favorite travel/real life adventure book. West of Jesus has completely knocked that book off my shelf! The only way I can describe it is that this is a perfect combination of three of my most favorite books: Travels, Lamb and Dancing Naked in the Mind Field with some Kem Nunn added in for good measure. I really think I should give it to a friend, but I think I want to read it again--so I will just have to buy a lending copy--that is how good it is!
Religion is just part of it September 13, 2007
An interesting and well researched book. This books delves into a large number of subjects, from Eastern and Western Religions, to extreme sports, and even neuroscience. Even though it touches on so many subjects, the book flows well, and doesn't lose the reader. While I found myself envious of the author's freedom of time, that allowed him to do so much traveling and surfing, I'm glad that he took the time to write this book. I would definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in religion or surfing.
The stoke makes perfect sense now. February 14, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been through many spiritual phases. Nature has always been at the heart of them all. Even when I was a christian in the bible-belt. I recently spent a few years in southern California and surfed there. The feeling I got from surfing was unlike anything else I had experienced. Steven has explained how that feeling, the stoke, of being in the now of the wave, is what humans aspire for in everything they do. Stories have served us with explanations of what we are afraid of and what we desire to be. The story of The Conductor, which Steven spent a great deal of time tracking down, is such a story. In the end, his experience and the things he discovered as a result of seeking The Conductor's source, answered many questions I had about what life is all about, and what we do to put ourselves on a path of self-awareness.
intelligent and ambitious January 26, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
An ambitious attempt to capture and explain the intangibles that all surfers know by their experience in the water. Wonderful exploration of myth in the tradition of Joseph Campbell but far more accessible than some of J. Campbell's works. By his intelligent approach and his credibility as a surfer Kotler helps destroy , in part, the stereotype of the burnt-out, stoner Spicoli surfer and at the same time celebrates the free-spirited, fringe aspects of the surfer culture/ethnology.
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