I wish that I was a bigger fan of Jack Kerouac than I am. I’ve read a lot of biographical stuff about him and he seems like a fascinating character. I like the ideas behind his work. But for some reason I’ve just never been turned on by his writing style.

Nevertheless, I pick up books by him now and then and try to give him another chance. One of the ones that I did that with recently was Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha. I’ll be honest in saying that it didn’t capture my attention through the entire book. I have no problem putting down books that I’m not loving and that’s what I did with this one.

However, I did like this book more than some of his others and I think it’s an intriguing read for people who like Kerouac’s style and who also have an itnerest in Buddhism. It’s basically Kerouac’s version of the story of Siddhartha which is a key story that helps people understand the basics of Buddhism.

Definitely a book to consider even if I didn’t ultimately decide to finish it!

Tags: book recommendation, book review, books, buddha, kathryn vercillo, kerouac, reading, wake up