The Second Mountain

I like David Brooks. I like how he writes. It flows nicely.

And this is good, because this book doesn’t really go in a straight line. It meanders. It wanders around a point, completely unfocused.

“The First Mountain” we climb is superficial success – money, job, romance. “The Second Mountain” is a climb to find moral meaning in life through Vocation, Faith, Love, and Community.

After establishing that initial point, the book kind of wanders around. He takes a weird, long detour in the middle to dissect romance from initial glance to “death do us part” (I started skimming through this, because it was strange).

In the section on faith, Brooks speaks at length about his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. This was some compelling reading.

About two-thirds of the way through, I realized that the book is sort of just a meditation or celebration of the idea of finding greater meaning. This is not a focused read, and there’s not a lot of practical advice here.

As I said, Brooks is a great writer, and I looked forward to picking up the book every day. If you understand the point of the book (or lack of point) before picking it up, you’ll be happier for it.