I tend to avoid books by celebrity authors; they never seem to live up to the hype. But because I have a lot of respect for Arianna, and because becoming fearless, or at least getting closer to it, is one of the big things I’m working on right now, I decided to give this book a try.

It really should be called “On Why You Should Become Fearless”, because that’s really mostly what it’s about – stories to illustrate why fearlessness is so important. The advice portion can be basically boiled down to two points:

1. Feel the fear and do it anyway (if only it were that easy!)

2. You will never be truly fearless unless you have religious faith

The idea behind the second point is that it’s important to believe in something greater and more powerful than yourself, that you can put your trust in when the going gets tough. She believes that we are hard-wired for this.

I dunno… I can see her point, and yet I can’t imagine myself ever believing in something mythical, or taking much comfort from it if I tried. I do think, though, that this is closely related to the human impulse to couple up; there is both literal and psychological safety in numbers, and having a partner can bring a great deal of peace of mind. Unless, of course, things go badly, and then the partner can end up being the reason you need to be fearless in the first place…

I didn’t really get any answers from this book, but it did make me think, and I felt it was worth reading.