The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

I looked forward to Meditations both as philosophy and for the insights it might yield into Roman history. But the experience was almost completely ruined by Alan Munro\’s reading. His voice was mellifluous, clear, confident, and well-paced. But it was as if he were reading for transcription, pausing every three or four words for the stenographer to catch up. So instead of reading sentences and paragraphs in a way that brought out their meaning, he read small clusters of words, breaking apart their larger meanings in a way that made it impossible for me to follow the author\’s argument. If he were to read the preceding sentence, this would not be an exaggeration: So instead of reading. Sentences and paragraphs In a way That brought out their meaning He read small clusters of words Breaking apart their larger meanings In a way That made it impossible for me To follow the author\’s argument. I suppose somebody with a different attention span might find a much better experience, but I\’ll certainly never make the mistake of buying anything else Munro narrates.

He pauses in the middle of each idea as a listener you cannot connect what he saying it\’s an agony for me to try to understand what he says when he does not even finish a sentence you cannot tell the difference between two ideas so far is the worst I\’ve listened to

The thoughts and statements of this book were interesting, however it was read with broken English. I\’m not sure why, but every 4-6 words had a pause. It was highly annoying.

Everyone else said it first, but they are right. The uneven, herky-jerky reading makes this near impossible to follow, especially if you are accustomed to increased speed.

I wish I could be more like Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism is my favorite life philosophy and Marcus is one of the most impressive stoics every – in theory and in practice. The philosophy of stoicism is basically a mindset, a mindset of endurance and inner peace. You will meet idiots, but it is not their fault that they are idiots. You, who know better, know that is is better to remain calm in every situation. Idiots cannot hurt you unless you let them. Instead, be nice, be gentle, be reasonable, at all times and in every encounter. These are the principles spelled out in this book. Marcus, despite being a very powerful man comes across as humble and reasonable and he is, I think rightly, considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. It, therefore, pains me to say that the book was not very readable. Indeed, I would say that if you finish this book you are already a proven stoic. The reader should keep in mind that Aurelius lived almost 2000 years ago. Language evolves a lot in 2000 years and his contemporaries probably didn\’t experience the same issues when reading his book. Nevertheless, his promiscuous use of conjunctions (and, or, nor), leads to insanely long sentences – so long that you forget what the sentence was about by the time you reach the end of the sentence. So even though I am a fan of stoicism and of Marcus Aurelius, I can\’t recommend this book unless you are one of those persons with a concentration ability made of concrete. In short, the book has a nice message but it is very boring.

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