I finished reading The Courage To Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga this week, and my feelings are mixed.
I enjoyed this book's format; it's mostly dialogue instead of your typical non-fiction/psychology/self-help book. It's a very long dialogue between a philosopher and a young person. I know a lot of readers might dislike the interview format, but personally, I thought that this technique made some of the complex ideas accessible. I also believe many readers will dislike this book for reasons it explains indirectly. It tells some difficult truths, and one might feel vulnerable, defensive, and potentially angry.
I admit that many things the philosopher says in this interview-style book are thought-provoking, although not to die for. I still disagree with a few things, but taking a step back and looking at the world from a different angle (the philosopher's angle) was interesting.
The only real problem with this book, I think, is that it repeatedly talks about how it will provide practical steps for putting the theory into practice, but it doesn't. Moreover, the text sometimes came across as a little preachy. And you know me, I don't like preachy books.
This book has a lot of wisdom, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Ultimately, I gave it three stars: It was good, but not for me.
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