Driving to Nirvana: A Woman's Path for Drivers Without Cellular Phones | 
 enlarge | Author: Clarice Bryan
Publisher: Weiser Books
Category: Book
List Price: $9.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 2605423
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3
ISBN: 0892540370
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.283019
EAN: 9780892540372
ASIN: 0892540370
Publication Date: June 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: New Copy, We ship daily
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| Customer Reviews:
 Kinda soothing June 20, 2007
This book is a very slim volume, and deceptively easy reading on very profound subjects. Clarice Bryan relates her experiences in driving to virtues such as teamwork, patience, tolerance, and becoming one with the world.
The book is peppered with quotes from everyone from Pema Chodron to the Dalai Lama, and has Chinese calligraphic writing marking the end of each chapter. It basically has all the makings of a book that could be prominently displayed in the inspirational or self-help section. While I finished it really quickly, and would consider parts of it worth re-reading, this book does have some disconnects for me.
The problems start with the subtitle: "A Woman's Path for Drivers without Cellular Phones". Most people I know can't live without their cell phones. I would count it as part of the driving experience, and why would it matter, exactly? The book doesn't really cover phones or the lack of them at all, and I think it would have been less confusing without the phrase "Without Cellular Phones".
And although Clarice Bryan clearly states that she'd like to address woman drivers in her book because they get less help than men, I didn't get very much of that out of "Driving to Nirvana". In the book she talks about her driving and her mother's driving, but says little about how her driving is best related to women's driving in general; how women's driving differs from men's driving, or what women should really know about driving - which I'm sure all women (me included!) would be fairly interested to know.
She does talk about being a speed demon but surely that doesn't gel with the stereotype of the inept woman driver?
And while I enjoyed reading about Bryan's experiences in driving - giving way for lane changes, and not going so; driving on automatic to the airport while engaged in intense conversation; even going through an accident - the trouble with driving is that most people do it so often and so unconsciously that it's hard to think concretely of how it can be related to the bigger picture of enhancing oneself and thinking positive thoughts.
Bryan tries to make the connection, but driving is probably so automatic for most readers that I don't think they are going to "get it", except perhaps with the last chapter (more later).
The other point of contention I have with the book are the pages on Chinese calligraphy, which do loosely translate into English as in the captions. The problem is that I could more or less read what was written, and thought it was a cultural misuse of calligraphy.
Calligraphy is normally done in traditional Chinese rather than simplified Chinese, and it is usually about something positive or uplifting - a lot of what was written should never have appeared in Chinese mainly because it's so negative and/or reprehensible.
Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it just seemed irrelevant.
"Black and white mean the police" (for example is much too mundane, even if the caption reads "Get the binoculars out, honey. There's one way back there that looks like a police car." This ended the chapter on Courtesy (!).
"Stupidly waiting" () on the other hand seemed to make more sense against the caption "I don't know what 'right of way' means, so I'll just stay here until everyone else has gone through the intersection. Why is everyone always honking nowadays?" (I can really identify with this). It was, however, in the chapter titled My Body the Car.
There are bright spots like the last chapter, which was my favourite chapter. Bryan writes about how, when driving alone, she sometimes feels completely "one" with the world. For the record, I don't (yet) have a driver's licence though I am taking lessons. I can't drive alone yet, but if and when I do, I want to have that kind of nirvana. I hope it doesn't take me too long :)
 This book should be on the DMV's required reading list! January 23, 1998
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Driving to Nirvana" is a refreshing and well written alternative to having to struggle through life's highways on our own. Dr. Bryan provides us with a reader friendly, humorous and practical guide to help us navigate the inevitable inward and outward paths most of us face in our daily lives. Get two copies, one for the home and a second one to keep in your car to entertain and help you maintain your sanity during those long traffic-logged "mini-vacations!" This book should be required reading by the DMV!
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