This was the first book I read at the start of the year. I still wonder about where Nao is now.

Ozeki is a visiting writer at my school right now (which is also her alma mater), and she's been offering courses, so it was super cool to see her work on booktube! I haven't read too much of her stuff, but this has inspired me to get into it.

Your Quantum Mechanics interlude was priceless. Thank you for another awesome video!

I bought this 2 days ago without really knowing too much about it, but now I am so excited to get to it and see how it treats me. Love this video, especially hearing about your background at that monastery.

I found this book in a book exchange when I was 17 when I was in the midst of a spiritual awakening and was not the catalyst but played a part in me first shaving my head, one of my favorite and most beautiful books ever written

I enjoy your eloquent, thoughtful videos so much and I am so grateful that you discussed this book. I read it last year, liked it well enough, but that quantum mechanics bit towards the end completely spun me around. I've been feeling like I missed the main point of the book - your video fixed that!

I just love your approach on book reviews! Very refreshing, though detailed at the same time.

I've been wanting to read this for so long! It's been collecting dust on my bookshelf but I think your review will finally encourage me to pick it up sometime this year. Also that is so cool that you got to spend a year at a monastery!

Thanks for telling about your time in the monastery, and in Mexico. I've been eying that book for a while now, nice to hear your thoughts.

Amazing review! I agreed with every word, and your personal experience sounds amazing, thanks for sharing it. I just stumbled upon your channel and I've seen a couple of videos and they're all great! Thank you for the great reviews and book recommendations :)

Hysterical and brilliant. :) Thank you!

I have just returned from Canada and I can whole-heartedly agree with the unpredictable predictability of Canadian winters and weather. I've heard so much about A Tale for the Time Being -- I was sort of saving it, as if I wasn't quite ready to read it but I love your review so I will pick it up once all my library books go back. c:

Great review, I'm already drooling for the book. Zen for me is an unfinished story that began at about my age 23 when Samu Sunim, a Korean Zen monk gave a zazen session and talk at the UofT.

Haha, yep! Canadian winters are the best. We just had the opposite. Super cold at -20 now we have a 'heat wave'. This was a fascinating review and I think I'll pick it up sooner rather than later.

Fascinating review, I wasn't a fan of the book but I contribute that to almost preachy focus on Zen philosophy. I feel if I had some understanding, I might have been able to appreciate the book far more than I did. Life in a monastery would have been fascinating, and it seems talking to squirrels is good practice for BookTube.

Such a good book. I love her

That's so funny! I started reading this a few days ago and I absolutely love it. The chapters are definitely my favorite. That's so cool that you lived in a monastery, very interesting.

Great review (as always, I could listen to you talking about books for hours...).I have always been interested in physics and philosophy of science, and I have been reading quite some books on quantum mechanics lately, so this book seems right up my alley. Plus: I've been meaning to Ruth Ozeki for some time. So, no more procrastination, will read this asap!

One of my favorite books in 2014! Loved hearing your monastery experiences. Yup, you are definitely Mexican.

I read this last year (almost everything was last year) and your zen explanation is very good. I liked it but it was sort of a buddy read with Estelle who is French and lives in Japan. Apparently there are no French maid cafes (so I'm not going there!) I have read one of Ozeki's previous books My Year of Meats, which I preferred, but the Zen quantum mechanics has given me something to think about. :)

The best review of the book hands down, I have seen so many reviews, and I have read many as well on GoodReads, but this is by far the best of them all. The quality is amazing, and the audio is really great, even though I'm writing this and watching this in the year of 2022 instead of 2016, however this master piece is timeless (the video I meant), so great work! For the book itself, is good, but god I hated the character Nao, she is a person, I would not rather to be around, and if it was not for college, I wouldn't have finished or read the rest of the book, and I'll be happy not be the person that Nao is looking for, as a parallel time being. Great Review!

This is one of those books that I added to my TBR ages ago when it went around Booktube and completely forgot about it as other books popped up in my feed. The struggle is real, I want to read all the books and I just don't have the time :(

goodness why have i discovered this channel only now? your videos are great (also your voice sounds strangely familiar, like an audiobook narrator or sth).

That's just it! I love this book and I _still_ can't make sense of *exactly* what went on in the last few pages. But that is probably why I keep returning to Ozeki's writing. Lovely review :)

Well first off, huh? Secondly. Huh? Thirdly, I actually love quantum mechanics. And this book is in the bargain section of my bookstore - so now I need to pick it up. Sounds slightly mind-blowing. And your time at the monastery - so cool and you are hilarious. Reminds me of the first pages of The Knife of Never Letting Go when the squirrels are taunting the dog. Same idea. Except of course the squirrels talk back . . . (I am still laughing )

I loved this book and I could'nt stop reading it. I am also a fan of Murakami's books, Have you found similarities between 1Q84 of Haruki Mirakami and A tale for the time being?

It seemed great but couldn't continue after the attack at the school. Can't go back after that, takes time to recover. Shame I really want to finish it!

I think it's a perfect book.

Oh I so fell in love with Ruth Ozeki this year! My whole March Wrap Up is actually about her. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pc5nfsWKxM2xZ3U.html

I loved this book when I read it along with my book club! The narrative itself was hard to swallow with all the violence and abuse that Nao suffered and having Ruth's narrative run simultaneously with it was a bit disconcerting since it was a mixture of hard living on Nao's side and folks just making their lives hard even though they had loads of privilege on Ruth's end. While I did enjoy the book overall, I will say that I wasn't the greatest fan of the ending. To me, it felt as if Ozeki somewhat jumped the shark even in the realm of "buddhist zen" that she was creating with her novel. Regardless, I still think of this book periodically even though it's been two years since I read it.

I thought Nao's parts was great, but Ruth's seemed bland in comparison... I guess there was a point to it all based on zen philosophy, but that stuff goes way above my head :) Nevertheless, Nao's story really stuck with me, and I still think back to it now and then.

If I understand correctly, Nao is equally alive and well, writing her story, and swept out to sea, depending on the views of the reader. If the loose ends had been wrapped up a bit more conclusively, it would have defeated the entire purpose of the story's message. Is my assessment close, or did I miss something completely?

I started skipping some of your description as it seemed you might be telling spoilers....can you warn us if you do do..have the book and have not read yet...Thanks

I personally didn't care for this book that much. In all honesty, I thought Nao, and by extension Ruth, was going to focus more on talking about the grandmother and her religion, instead of just focusing on Nao's problems. Plus, when the quantum mechanics got introduced into the story, I just couldn't get into it. I chalk part of this up to my personal disinterest in surrealism (never enjoyed Murakami and Abe either). That being said, if Ozeki wrote a book about how and why she became a Zen Priest, I'd buy it. I think she's a good writer, but 'Time Being' didn't mesh well for me.