I found this book profound, compelling, challenging and, at the same time, irreverent, funny and too often referencing God, in a variety of guises. Those times seemed to vary between what I guess was the author's personal beliefs and a sense of historical benchmarking.

However, I loved the notions of Being and Non-Being; of the depth of explanation offered for them, though this is not an easy read and the sudden revelation that some of the rules provided when adequately explained. Some I found apparent, some amusing, and others confusing, but all was good in the end.

If you wish to challenge your thinking, this is a book to read!

So many words. An unbelieveable amount of words, to say some very simple things. Also I have no clue what lobster love lives prove about human love lives.

Make order out of chaos by sorting your own life Out First. Simply one of the greatest minds of our generation imparting his wisdom to benefit us all. Excellent book and highly recommend it.

This was a bit too verbose for me, I'm afraid. There were some good points in here, although I think they are probably common knowledge anyway and some that I really couldn't get to grips with. It was a bit of a struggle.

I tried. I really tried. I love self-help but I'm into rule two and I don't know what's going on anymore. Men are order and women are chaos? 543 (feels like it) pages waffling on about the Bible to no obvious purpose? Something something nudity? Nope, I'm out.

I could not finish this book so I will never know what the twelve rules are... the rules I did get left me feeling irritated, patronised and frustrated. Nothing much new in what I did read but the whole tone of the writing left me cold. And the emphasis on cod science and religion didn't reassure me in the slightest.

In fairness I'm guessing I may not be the target audience for this book given the voice Mr Peterson has chosen to write in.

I was given a free copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This is rare for me but I didn't really enjoy this book. It was patronising poorly written.

12 Rules for Life is a book that talks about many problems we face with ourselves in our everyday lives. From how we can change the things that don't work for ourselves anymore, to deeper problems like the infamous "Why me?" question that we often use when something unfortunate happens to us or someone close to us, the well known clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson puts his thoughts n this book constructively, and certainly in a lot of details.

I found the topics very interesting, as they are things that everyone will face or think about many times in their lives. The book was articulate, very intelligent, with the author also being compassionate at times when it was needed, while still remaining honest. It is certainly a thought provoking book, which is essential to an interesting content.

Having read it, it left me feeling both more hopeful, and more eager to live in my best, or at least in a better, potential. I also enjoyed the fact that there were many examples in the book, and the parables derived from religion were also quite interesting. Sometimes you need a good example in order to understand things that mere analyzing just won't do.

Lumbering 'common sense' tract that relies heavily on selective science and unquestioned religion. Patronising and hard to read. Did not finish.

This book really wasn’t for me. Perhaps the description I read just wasn’t quite accurate enough, but I wasn’t expecting it to be full of biblical references and judgement, and I really think that ought to be made clearer in the blurb. I couldn’t connect with it at all and the section on disciplining children sat very uneasily with me. I can see from other reviews that a lot of people have enjoyed the book, but it really wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed this for the most part, especially after his skewering of Kathy Newman on Channel Four news. Some interesting opinions and ideas. Not all of which I agree with, but I would love the chance to debate them with the author. He does Labour his points a bit. He doesn’t like lefties but for the most part I enjoyed the book.

Why say 10 words when you can say 10,000 seems to be the mantra of Jordan Peterson. This book reads like an endless stream of consciousness being written down with no consistent message and many inconsistencies. His endless quoting from and using of scripture from the Bible is just offensive at times. The guy doesn't even profess to be a Christian but chose Christianity to base this book on as it is the best system of 'good and evil' he can find. Or, said sceptically, thought it would help sell his book.

According to Peterson, Hitler and Stalin were bad people due to having inadequate mothers. "Hitler's mother gave birth to Hitler and Stalin's mother gave birth to Stalin. Was something amiss in their crucial relationships? It seems likely". Yes it really does say that and a load of similarly offensive passages to women, children, men. I have skim read it and regret the time I spent doing that.

As for the kids that he babysat and bullied - l can hardly believe that he admits what he did, let alone tells the world how he behaved.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I found it hard to read as all dates/numerals were omitted and also most 'ff' combinations so 'off' read as 'o','difference' as 'di erence', etc.

Not for me I'm afraid. I did have high hopes but it's just too verbose a style to engage me and keep my attention as one of my rules is keeping it concise and direct.

I rarely abandon a book but this one was just really bad. The writing is needlessly pointlessly dense and florid but the author just repeats himself over and over again. He also refers to the Bible throughout as though that is the only story or myth he could use which I found alienating. He’s also super into simplistic gender dynamics, his points are simple and obvious, there is nothing in this book to recommend it. Maybe if you’re looking for a literary criticism of the bible.

I found this book heavy going. Not for the faint hearted.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Jordan B. Peterson for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Wonderful book. The 12 rules make perfect sense and are fully explained in each chapter.
There is a mixture of advice heard from parents, teachers and people as we grew up interjected by the teachings of great philosophers.
It’s probably too heavy going for a lot of people. Ideal to be read by philosophy and religious students. Some chapters would be good for childcare courses.
I read an ebook. I ould need a hard copy of this book to get full use of it.
A separate list of the rules would be useful.

Lobsters, bible, god; no thanks, I was immediately put off. I tried to skim to see what the actual "rules" were but as my copy was free from NetGalley, it was a proof edition and did not have an index, so I could not find them amongst the waffly preaching. One of the reviewers gave a summary of them so I read that instead! I guess it just boils down to be a better person, and although many of the criticisms of modern day society may be valid, this is was not readable for me. Some of the reviewers sound like cult followers. Press delete.

I am afraid the book did not work for me at all. The barrage of analogies made me constantly lose the thread of the argument being made ;/

These type of books aren't for everyone and sadly 12 rules for life wasn't for me. Worth a try if you're looking for chaos to become order in your life.

Thinking about how to begin a review of such a challenging and powerful book I determined not to cloud my thoughts by looking at any other reviews, although I had been aware of some recent coverage of an interview on UK’s Channel 4 TV news that had seemingly sparked some controversy. In the absence of prior knowledge I would expect Professor Jordan Peterson’s book to produce a full spectrum of reviews, but with a probable tendency for there to be a somewhat bipolar distribution, with reviewers finding either much to praise or much to criticise, since this is a book that will provoke and challenge what are often powerfully held beliefs, and the lazy reader (or the reader with a closed mind) will simply discount views that don’t accord with their politics or wider world view.

If you are reading this after you have read the book I am unlikely to change your mind, but - if you haven’t yet read it - I would urge you to pause before internally whooping with delight as an opinion is apparently endorsed or, conversely, discounting Professor Peterson’s ideas simply because they run counter to your most deeply-held convictions. Your enjoyment and benefit from reading this book will, instead, be increased dramatically if a priori assumptions are left behind and the evidence adduced by Professor Peterson in support of his carefully argued positions is carefully scrutinised against the historical record and the events reported daily across the written and broadcast media. Whilst the read-across from evidenced positions to the 12 rules is not always as explicit as some readers may like, the internal consistency is generally secure throughout.

In particular, the exploratory journey around the background to the rule in each chapter added significant benefit and context to the simply stated rules. However, this reader felt strongly that
the book would have benefited - and the 12 rules for life would have been more accessible - if there had been a rather more ruthless editing of the text. In rather too many places the trees were so thickly planted - and described in loving detail - that the woods and forests were indeed lost from sight.

Professor Peterson’s tendency to illustrate points and arguments with extracts from the Bible will also irritate some readers, although a careful reading will reveal that he is generally citing the stories to illustrate wider ideas and exemplify particular behaviours rather than to promote a specifically Judeo-Christian world-view. On balance, though, the decision to include so much from this source may be a mistake in terms of engaging the widest possible audience. Nevertheless this is a masterwork from a leader in his field. Love Professor Peterson or hate him, his arguments are carefully set out, well-evidenced and (crucially) relevant and applicable to both individual lives and wider society. Not a light read by any means, and - inevitably - some positions are less secure and well-argued than others, but a great antidote to the mindless groupthink that threatens to overwhelm.

Highly recommended.